Karachi braces for surgical clean-up

Police feel sidelined as preparations begin for operation.

KARACHI:

Even as officials pored over plans to dismantle criminal outfits in Karachi and review their swelling list of wanted men, the federal government on Wednesday placed the paramilitary Rangers at the helm of a proposed targeted operation after much deliberation.

Rangers and police personnel have begun preparing for the operation which will get under way in two days.

Given the time taken to authorise the operation, questions have been raised about those being targeted in the operation and whether they will continue to stay at their hideouts till the law enforcers come for them.

Most of the criminal outfits are believed to have gone underground or managed to wind up their operations temporarily. Moreover, they also may have dumped their weapons and other armaments before the law-enforcement agencies could have even started their clean-up campaign.



“Most of our operatives have already left the city,” said a member of a banned outfit while talking to The Express Tribune. “But they will come back and give the answer if they (law enforcers) do wrong to our men and innocent people. It is not that we have all run away. We will fight them with all our force if it comes down to it.”

Police feel sidelined

The decisions made in the federal cabinet will certainly have repercussions as the Rangers have been given a free hand to conduct the law-enforcement activities. The police department has expressed its concerns over being sidelined in the operation.

The decision has reportedly created a rift among top officials of the departments as both, the Rangers and the police, feel it is their right to conduct the operation. “We have been degraded by the authorities. The police personnel’s morale has definitely sunk because of this decision,” a senior official at the police department said on the condition of anonymity.



“We will have to be very careful when conducting the operation. If the Rangers personnel, or even the police, take biased steps towards one political party or another, it will set off a chain reaction where all political forces will stand up against us and the operation will end even before it commences,” said DIG Tahir Naveed. “Besides the militant wings of political parties, our biggest threat will be from terrorists. We might even have to face the eventuality of bomb attacks in retaliation,” he added.

Moreover, Rangers have also prepared to conduct the operation. “Rangers have conducted several operations and raids in the past against criminal elements in the metropolis. This time, the law enforcers will again achieve their targets and goals,” said the Rangers spokesperson while talking to The Express Tribune.



The affected areas

Karachi is faced by multi-dimensional issues: sectarian, political, ethnic, land-grabbing, kidnappings and extortion, as well as the activities of the Taliban and other banned outfits who have managed to effectively capture areas that are ‘no-go’ areas for law enforcers and outsiders.

Most of the affected areas are in the South and West districts, which include Lyari and its adjoining localities, including Kharadar, Mithadar, Garden, Ramswami, Saddar, Ranchore Lines, Aram Bagh, Eidgah, Risala, Napier, Maripur, Docks, Baldia Town, Ittehad Town, Mawach Goth as well as Malir, Dalmia, Shanti Nagar, where most of the extortion cases are reported.



There are ‘no-go areas’ with dominating Taliban elements. These areas include Manghopir, Pirabad, Kunwari Colony, Pakhtunabad, Sultanabad, Rasheedabad, New Muzaffarabad Colony, Old Muzaffarabad Colony, Sharafi Goth, Shah Latif, Quaidabad, Sherpao Colony, Shirin Jinnah Colony, Keamari, Quaidabad that fall in West and East districts. Here, kidnapping for ransom and extortion are rampant.

It is these areas that pose an immediate threat to the writ of the government as they are inaccessible to the law enforcers and the general public.

The operation is expected in the next two days, but the land mass of these troubled areas is so expansive that maintaining law and order through this targeted action seems like an insurmountable feat.

Operations in Karachi



1992

Operation Cleanup launched. Army ‘concludes’ operation in Nov

1993

In December, Defence Minister Aftab Mirani maintained that operation in Sindh “will continue”. Renamed Operation Blue Fox

1994

PM Benazir Bhutto, Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar and COAS General Waheed Kakar decided to carry out Rangers-led operation, backed by army

1995-99

Counterinsurgency operations continued despite changes in government

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.