Three ‘Lyari gangsters’ nabbed in separate raids

Rangers claim arrest of most wanted Lyari gang war member who was hiding in Mominabad

The Rangers claimed to have arrested three members of the Lyari gang war during separate operations in Karachi on Saturday.

In an intelligence-based operation, carried out with the police, the paramilitary force claimed, they nabbed a most wanted Lyari gangster, Ismail alias Petra.

According to a Rangers spokesperson, they had received a tip-off about Ismail- who had fled from Karachi- hiding in Mominabad, Orangi Town. He said the Rangers carried out a joint operation with the police in the wee hours of Saturday and arrested Ismail from Mominabad.

In a statement issued later in the day, the Rangers said Ismail was booked in cases of murder, attempted murder, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, police encounter, sale of drugs and other crime.

According to the statement, Ismail told law enforcers during interrogation that he had fled outside the country, fearing arrest after the Karachi operation was launched in 2016. He said he had returned to Karachi recently, with the aim to reorganise the infamous Lyari gang war.

The Rangers have handed him over the police for further legal action.

Separately, the Rangers arrested another two suspected Lyari gangsters, identified as Ismail Patni and Sameer Shaikh, said to be working for an on the run Lyari gang war leader, Ahmed Ali Magsi.

These arrests, too, were made during joint operations with the police, conducted in on the basis of tip-offs.

The arrested men were caught with the help of CCTV footage, said a statement issued by the Rangers, adding that Patni and Shaikh had barged into the office of Crown Builders in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on December 7, 2020, demanded Rs5 million in extortion and given death threats, all the while brandishing a pistol and a hand grenade.

Law enforcers said they seized weapons from the arrested suspects and handed them over to the police for further legal action.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2021.