The police in Karachi have been unable to flush out the men involved in target killings because they are politically affiliated and have patronage.
Investigations DIG made this statement in a report he filed to the Sindh High Court division bench, comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, on Wednesday.
The judges were hearing a constitutional petition filed by the Human Rights Commission South Asia through its representative, Syed Iqbal Kazmi. The petition asks the court to enhance the powers of law-enforcement agencies and ask the Pakistan Army to recover illegal weapons in the city.
The petitioner also asked the court to direct the authorities to arrest the 7,783 men accused of 3,230 heinous crimes that were closed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
During the hearing, the Sindh additional advocate general submitted a report by the DIG, who acknowledged that 147 target killings took place between January 1 and April 19 this year. The police managed to arrest several men, the report said.
Without giving numbers, the report said that the arrested men have revealed important information about their accomplices, who will be arrested soon. The DIG explained that several suspects have gone in hiding or have fled to the tribal areas of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Special teams headed by senior officers are working on such cases, he assured. The police have also sought the cooperation of “sister intelligence agencies” but the main hurdle is the political connections of the “target killers”, he said. Later, the deputy attorney-general asked the court to give more time to file comments as ordered earlier. The bench adjourned proceedings to a date to be fixed later by the court’s office.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2011.
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