Search operation: Dozens rounded up in crackdown

Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal were searched.

KARACHI: Sindh Additional Inspector General of Police Saud Mirza has said that more than 90 people, who also include members of political parties, have been arrested in the last 24 hours across the city.

Home Minister Manzoor Wasaan had claimed earlier in the day that 101 suspects were arrested.

Mirza said that pockets of the city, mainly Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s notorious apartment block Rabia City, some areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Abul Hasan Ispahani road erupted with gunfire on Tuesday evening. Police immediately cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

“Some of those men apprehended include members of political parties,” he said, adding that the police was in the middle of interrogating the suspects. Some of those held are believed to be target killers.

Weapons, including pistols and machine guns, were seized from 19 suspects.

A meeting presided over by the Additional IG and IG Sindh Wajid Durrani was also held at Central Police Office on Wednesday to discuss the law and order situation of the city.

Meanwhile, Gulshan SP Waqar Mallahni said the alleged kidnapping-for-ransom case of a water board engineer MM Mehdi from Block No. 5 late Tuesday has been transferred to the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC). Water officials say Mehdi had retired seven years ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2011.