'Target killers are not expelled workers of political parties'

The Interior Minister issued the statement while speaking to the media outside the Parliament House.

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Monday that target killers arrested in Karachi had been expelled by political parties, while he spoke to the media outside the Parliament House.

In an earlier report of The Express Tribune, Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies Director Amir Rana claimed there is increasing evidence that organised criminal gangs are closely coordinating with terror groups.

He also said target killings should not be just seen through the prism of political point scoring, even though it is a fact that almost all mainstream political parties in Karachi have been accused of having armed militias, who are fighting a turf war.

“We need to study how the underworld groups affiliated with political parties collide or collaborate with extremist groups,” he added.

At least 109 people were killed as a result of target killing in the first quarter of 2011, according to conservative estimates by the Karachi police.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), however, claimed that as many as 260 people have been killed in Karachi so far in 2011, which is very close to the 267 people who were killed during the entire year 2008.