‘Police have mandate to arrest all target-killers’

Memon says all suspec­ts, regard­less of affili­ation, will be caught.

KARACHI:

The spectre of target killings is not limited to a single political party but activists of all parties are involved in such incidents in Karachi, said the Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon. Furthermore, the police have recently arrested seven suspects who were involved in these politically-motivated murders.

The minister, addressing a joint press conference with the CCPO Karachi Saud Mirza, said that the police had started an investigation and that it was premature to disclose the identity of the arrested suspects. “We don’t want to create controversy at the moment by disclosing names and affiliation of the suspects,” said Memon. The information minister praised the police for their efforts and said that they had arrested many suspects, including those involved in the murder of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar.  “We have a uniform policy in place and all suspects are arrested without any regard for their political affiliation,” he said.

Memon said that a total of a 115 people in Karachi had lost their lives in April, of which 38 were victims of target killing. The most severely affected areas were Orangi, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town and New Karachi where a majority of these killings took place.

Special police pickets had also been established in sensitive areas to arrest extortionists. The recent murder of two Sindhi nationalist leaders in Sanghar was also being investigated thoroughly and the chief minister had ordered an impartial inquiry into the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2011.