Busted: Alleged target killer among 13 apprehended

A woman and her accomplice were caught while robbing a house in Shah Faisal Colony.

KARACHI: Nearly half a dozen suspects were taken into custody during a search operation in Shanti Nagar and Dalmia, said the Aziz Bhatti police on Monday.

They claimed that the operation was carried out after unidentified suspects opened fire at a protest being held by the residents of Shanti Nagar against the dozen arrests made in another raid two days ago.

The protest turned violent as law enforcers tried to stop the protesters from blocking the main road. In retaliation, unidentified men started firing at the police. No one was injured. The authorities started firing tear gas shells to disperse the crowd and then continued to carry out a search operation.

DSP Nasir Lodhi said that they were not stopping the residents from staging a protest, but were trying to make sure that the main road was not blocked when the firing took place. He added that they called for backup as soon as the protest ended and searched the neighbourhood for the suspects. They took half a dozen men into custody and seized weapons from them. The identities of the suspects and their political affiliations were not disclosed.

In an unrelated incident, the police arrested an alleged target killer identified as Shakeel Abbas Nazimabad no.3.

They claimed that Abbas was affiliated with the banned Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan and had confessed to have killed 10 men, including banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan’s Maulana Ghaffoor Nadeem and his son.

The Khawaja Ajmair Nagri police said that they arrested two alleged extortionists identified as Mazhar and Tehseen. The suspects were caught while extorting money from a trader. In Orangi Town, two suspects identified as Gul Mohammad and Iqbal were arrested by the Pirabad police. They claimed that the suspects were involved in several murder and robbery cases. They seized two pistols from them.

A young woman identified as Shazia and her accomplice Saeed were arrested in an attempted robbery in Shah Faisal Colony.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2012.