Law and order: Not a big deal if a few people get killed, says city police chief

“The police are also on the hit list of terrorists and 119 policemen have been killed in this year,” says AIG Thebo.

KARACHI:

Karachi is the city of the 20 million people and it is not a big deal if a few people get killed in the city, said city police chief AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo.

“The police are also on the hit list of the terrorists and criminals and 119 policemen have so far been killed in this year,” he said at a press conference at Central Police Office on Tuesday. “Despite facing difficulties, the morale remains high among police officers and personnel.” Thebo was accompanied by Criminal Investigation Agency’s (CID) chief DIG Sultan Khawaja and district West police chief Arif Hanif.

Confirming the presence of a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions in the city, Thebo insisted the situation in the metropolis is much better now. “Every killing is not a targeted killing,” he claimed. “People are also being killed in the city due to personal enmity.” He did add, however, that they do not want even a single killing in the city.

On no-go areas, Thebo said that only a few areas remained where the police are facing resistance. The police are able to enter without any resistance in several sensitive areas, such as Kati Pahari, Manghopir and Lyari. “The ratio of no-go areas has reduced now,” he claimed. “There are 25,000 police personnel in Karachi and they are taking indiscriminate action in the city against terrorist and criminal elements without any regard for political affiliations.”

Besides killing four suspected criminals in separate encounters last night, the police have also arrested several target killers, extortionists and kidnappers, he said. There are around two million foreigners residing in the city without legal documentation and no records of these individuals are available with the government, he said, adding that the police suspected that these illegal immigrants are behind the attacks on Pakistan Peoples Party leader Bilal Shaikh and the office of the intelligence agency in Sukkur. Several media representatives boycotted the press conference as they were not informed on time.

Police performance in the past eight months:

Raids                                    15,748

Arrests                                 25,500

Explosives                           1,508

Hand grenades                   238

Live bombs                         59

Suicide jackets                    8

Pistols and revolvers          4,097

Sub-machine guns             134

Light machine guns           4

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