Rangers pick up 83 suspects from target killing hotspots

The paramilitary Sindh Rangers picked up 83 suspects mostly in neighbourhoods where the target killings took place.

The men were arrested during snap-checking and patrols, said a Rangers spokesperson, who added that they also seized weapons.

Fifteen suspects were arrested from Malir, Shah Faisal and Al Falah. A committee has also been formed to launch an anti-weapons drive. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza and IG Sindh Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak are members.

The committee is expected to prepare a report of its findings within 15 days and submit it to Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Aftermath of the killings

Monday was a relatively calmer day after nearly 40 suspected target killings took place in the course of one week. One man was killed in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and one bus was torched in reaction.

The presence of the police and Rangers was visible in tense areas.

IG Sindh on target killings

The total number of victims of target killings in Karachi is 120 instead of 700, said IG Sindh Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak while talking to the media in Hyderabad on Monday.

He said that the rest of the murders were of another nature and are being investigated.

The police have arrested 90 robbers and the number of kidnapping cases has also decreased in Sindh, he said, adding that security has been beefed up at the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan Sharif, following the attack at Data Darbar shrine in Lahore.

ACID WORDS

“My role is just to pray target killings are controlled in the city,” said Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza in a mildly sarcastic tone at a press conference on Monday at the PPP’s media Cell where President Asif Ali Zardari’s birthday was celebrated. He said that a major was was always played by Interior Minister Rehman Malik to end the tension.

When asked about the involvement of a “third element” in the target killings, he said, “It has been proven and every one should know who is behind the recent spate of target killings after political parties blamed and counter-blamed each other.”

According to him, this was the first time the Rangers had been given police powers to search and arrest people for three months.

The minister said that around 31 people allegedly involved in the incidents have been arrested over two days. According to him, the situation was “under control” and no incident had taken place after the interior minister visited Karachi and met the leaders of different political parties.

The Express Tribune asked PPP MPA Sharjeel Inam Memon about the home minister’s statement, which seemed to indicate that he was sidelined during the entire affair and Rehman Malik had swept in to tackle the target killings. Memon said that the home minister could not be taken seriously, he had just been joking.

However, a senior party leader, who requested not to be named, said that it was not joke and the statement could be seen in a serious light.

He said that one of the Sindh government’s (read PPP) coalition partners had been angry with Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza after he made certain statements about target killings.

A while ago, Mirza had said on the floor of the Sindh Assembly that had there not been a policy of “reconciliation”, he would have hung the troublemakers in Karachi out to dry.

After he made these statements, this coalition party’s high command had asked that Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik intervene. “Therefore the role of the home minister seems ineffective,” said this PPP leader.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2010.