Stop Taliban influx into Karachi, SC tells police

Trial courts directed to issue non-bailable warrants against prisoners on parole.

KARACHI:

Following a five-day long hearing on the Karachi violence case, the Supreme Court issued an interim order with directives for hunting down and re-arresting 35 prisoners on parole. The court order also proposed steps to check the increased influx of Taliban into the city.

Trial courts were directed to issue non-bailable warrants against the prisoners freed on parole. The police and other law enforcement agencies were also asked to do everything needed to deal with the worrying illegal immigration of foreigners and the Taliban into Karachi.

An excerpt from the order stated: “Instead of depoliticising the police force, further damage has been caused by inducting blue-eyed persons in the police force through lateral entries and then granting them retrospective seniority and out-of-turn promotions.”

The directions came from the bench hearing the Karachi law and order suo motu case following complaints regarding the presence of 7,000 to 8,000 Taliban members in the city. Sindh police chief Fayyaz Leghari and Additional Chief Secretary Waseem Ahmed seemed to be surprised on October 31 when the judges questioned them about the presence of the Taliban in such a large number in the city.

The government will remove the Supreme Court’s reservations on Karachi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the media on Saturday. He also said that action would continue against the Taliban in the city.

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