Fugitives, court absconders roam free in city

Police report accepts failure to arrest 32,000 wanted criminals

KARACHI:

Police failed to arrest more than 32,000 fugitives and alleged criminals in Karachi, said a Karachi police performance report for September 29 to October 16 submitted at Central Police Office.

Three meetings have been held in Central Police Office regarding the arrest of fugitive and wanted accused throughout Sindh, but the rate of arrests is very low. IG Rifat Mukhtar Raja has also expressed his anger in the meetings with the DIGs and SSPs.

As per police data, more than 3,553 fugitives were in the South Zone, 5,292 in the East Zone, more than 1,370 accused in the West Zone, whom the Karachi Police failed to arrest.

As for the under-trial suspects who have absconded after being released on bail, there were 9,822 court absconders in South Zone, 10,099 in East Zone and 2,836 in West Zone. According to the Karachi Police report, the department has arrested 26 accused and 64 fugitives involved in serious crimes, while 16 wanted and 41 fugitives are on bail.

Similarly, 160 accused and 721 absconding accused involved in other crimes including financial crime have been arrested while 92 accused and 660 absconding accused are on bail.

More than 110 people have been killed for resisting robbery so far this year in the city, while the new team of the Karachi police chief has also failed to improve the law and order situation or control street crime incidents.

Police ‘bump-off’ seven suspects in shootouts

Police claimed to have killed seven suspects during encounters last week. According to Karachi police statistics, 28 encounters with armed suspects were reported during the last week.

Subsequently, seven suspects were killed and 35 were arrested, including 29 in injured condition. Police seized 36 different types of illegal weapons and 21 motorcycles recovered from the arrested accused. The recovered weapons have been sent for forensics.

Besides the shootouts, the spokesperson said, police arrested a total of more than 3,102 suspects during raids in Karachi’s East, West and South Zones last week.

During the ongoing campaign against drugs by the police, 67kg hashish, 1.379kg heroin, 2.936kg ice and crystal meth, 73 bottles of liquor and 15kg of opium worth millions of rupee from different areas.

More than 144 different types of illegal weapons and ammunition used in looting from citizens and other incidents were taken into custody from the arrested street criminals.

A total of 85 stolen motorcycles and seven vehicles were recovered and taken into custody by the Karachi Police while carrying out operations in different areas.