CM orders crackdown on criminal elements

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired a high level meeting on law-and-order and directed IG police to continue targeted and intelligence-based operations against elements involved in kidnapping for ransom, street crime, drug trafficking, and land grabbing.

"The law and order would improve when the crime networks are scuttled," the top executive of the province told the meeting which was attended by IG Ghulam Nabi Memon, Home Secretary Saeed Mangnijo, Adl IG Karachi Javed Alam Odho, and PSCM Fayza Jatoi.

The chief minister took strong exception to the incidents of kidnapping for ransom reported from Kashmore. At this, the IG police told the chief minister that a young man was kidnapped from Kashmore and his kidnappers had been identified and would be arrested shortly.

Talking about street crime the chief minister said that it must be curbed by conducting the regular intelligence-based operation. "I am happy that the criminals who robbed a citizen at Teen Talwar have been arrested," he said and added that these outlaws were operating in gangs and their gangs must be busted.

Additional IG Karachi told the chief minister that the incidents of mobile snatching have started declining. He said that in June, 2,600 motorcycles were snatched while in July the snatching came down to 2154. Similarly, four-wheeler theft in June was 4,195 which dropped to 3,840 in July.

The CM was informed that 498 encounters with the street criminals were made, 343 gangs busted, 65 criminals were killed, 496 arrested red-handed, and 3,943 different kinds of illicit weapons were recovered.

The IG told the chief minister that due to corrective measures and day-to-day targeted search operations, the situation concerning target killing in Karachi has improved considerably.

The IG said that terrorism and attacks on law enforcement agencies in Karachi have also declined. He added that in 2013, 51 attacks were carried out, in 2014, 34, in 2015 seven, and in 2022 only three attacks were reported. As far as murders are concerned, the IG told the CM that in 2013 at least 2,789 murders were reported while their number came down to 391 in 2022.

To a question of the CM, the IG said that personal enmity was the main cause of murders.

He added that no political, ethnic or sectarian target killing has been reported. The CM was told that in 2022, 102 murder cases were detected and 149 accused were arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2022.