Sindh IGP denies presence of no-go areas

Shahid Nadeem Baloch admits, nevertheless, that law enforcers face resistance in some areas.

KARACHI: The existence of no-go areas in Karachi, which was earlier denied by the Rangers director-general at the Supreme Court, has yet again been ruled out by the newly appointed Sindh IGP Shahid Nadeem Baloch on Wednesday.

He admitted, however, there were some locations where law enforcers faced resistance from criminals. IGP Baloch said that about 500 barriers have been removed so far by law enforcers in the city while action against criminal elements will continue.

“The areas where law enforcers face resistance can be called no-go areas,” he said. “But we have removed barriers from other places and made them ‘easy come easy go’ for citizens as well as law enforcers.”

He said that some criminals had safe havens in some pockets of Karachi against which operations are underway, while discussing police performance in Landhi and its surrounding areas with the media at Landhi divisional police SP office on Wednesday.



It was his first press conference since he assumed the charge as Sindh IGP. Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Shaikh and DIG East Captain (retd) Tahir Naveed also accompanied him.

Earlier in a press conference, he said that a targeted operation was launched in Landhi 89, Sherpao Colony and Sector 33 in which 500 policemen participated. The operation was led by DIG East and lasted around four hours, he added.

He said that during the operation a hardened criminal, Hanif alias Chitta and Tiger, was arrested, who besides being involved in target killing of law enforcers was also wanted in various cases of extortion, robberies and other heinous crimes. He said that Hanif confessed to killing two policemen in an attack on Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed’s squad in Landhi. DSP Qasim Ghauri, who took part in the operation, added that besides Hanif, police also detained 15 more suspects though eight of them were later released after they were found innocent during interrogation.

Police also claimed to have seized a .222 rifle, three Kalashnikovs, four shotguns, a 9mm pistol, five TT pistols and ammunitions from their possession. Answering a query related to the killing of two traffic policemen in Soldier Bazaar a couple of days ago, the IGP said that they were considering arming the traffic police.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2013.