‘Rangers operation brought peace to city’

Karachi climbs from sixth position in 2014 to 68th on International Crime Index

KARACHI: The Karachi Operation, launched by the Sindh Rangers, has brought about a sense of peace in the city. The number of criminal activities has seen a marked decrease in the wake of major victories in operations against terrorists, kidnappers, extortionists, gang war and other criminal elements.

This was expressed by Rangers officials at the headquarters of the Sindh Rangers during a briefing to senior journalists. In 2014, Karachi was listed sixth on the International Crime Index, but in 2018, the port city managed to move to the 68th position and this is an indicator of the peace situation, said one official, adding that the blood and sacrifices of the martyrs would not be allowed to go in vain.



The official said that according to the International Crime Index, three cities of South Africa were listed on the index, including Johannesburg on number six, Durban on nine and Cape Town on 21. Besides, four cities of the United Stated of America, including Atlanta at 41, Chicago at 35, Baltimore at 18, and Detroit at 20. More cities that made it to the list include Delhi at 63, Dhaka at 28 and Kuala Lumpur at 29.

Regarding operations and major victories against terrorists and other criminal elements, the Rangers officials said that since the beginning of the Karachi operation in 2013, a total of 14,964 operations had been conducted which has put an end to terrorism in the city and curtailed criminal activities. They said that incidents of target killings have decreased by 97%, incidents of extortion by 96% and kidnapping by 92%.

The officials said that they had seized a large number of weapons, bullets, rocket launchers, LMGs, suicide jackets, explosive materials and hand grenades from the criminals. The officials added that there was no more an organised armed wing present in any political party.



During the operations, the Rangers claimed to have arrested over 2,500 street criminals and handed them over to the police, of whom 72% of the suspects were released on bail in less than a month. The officials further said that during operations, 23 officers and soldiers were martyred while nearly 100 sustained injuries.

The Rangers officials said that 57 incidents of terrorism occurred in 2013, 66 in 2014, 18 in 2015 and 16 in 2016 while no incident of terrorism took place in the last two years. Similarly, incidents of target killings were recorded at 965, 602, 199, 89 and 45 respectively and only 6 occurred in 2018. The incidents of extortion were recorded at 1524, 899, 303, 101, 65 and 38, respectively. Incidents of kidnapping were recorded at 174, 115, 37, 26, 18 and 12, respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2018.