Gangs of Lyari: Two alleged gangsters killed for being ‘informants’

Police believe that Baba Ladla’s group killed the men for their connection to a rival group.

KARACHI:

Two alleged Lyari gangsters were killed by their own companions in Lyari on Sunday, according to the police.

The deceased, identified as Abdul Sattar aka Pera and Siraj aka Ali aka Jalil Commando, were taken to the Lyari General Hospital. The bodies were later handed over to their families for burial.

Police sources told The Express Tribune that Pera and Jalil Commando were earlier associated with the Ghaffar Zikri group of Lyari gangsters, but later joined the rival group being operated by the notorious gangster, Noor Mohammad aka Baba Ladla. Pera was wanted by the Lyari police in more than 50 cases of crime, including murders, attempt to murder, kidnappings, extortion and police encounters. According to sources, Pera and Jalil Commando were involved in a dispute with their chief operational commander, Baba Ladla. The latter is believed to have killed the former on the suspicion that they were informants of Ghaffar Zikri.

Kalakot DSP Shakeel Ahmed told The Express Tribune that initially, it was stated that these gangsters were killed by policemen and then reports surfaced that Ghaffar Zikri was behind the murders. According to the initial investigation, however, the police believe that both men were killed by Baba Ladla and his group members.

Court intervenes

Earlier on Thursday, the Sindh High Court ordered the Rangers Wing Commander for district central to provide logistic support to the police in arresting the culprits hiding in the no-go areas in Lyari.

Justice Nadeem Akhtar, who headed the bench, also directed the Rangers authorities to submit a progress report regarding a cleanup operation to remove certain no-go areas from the city’s most violent area.

Muhammad Aslam Ghori had gone to the court, seeking recovery of his son, Irfan Ghori, who he alleged had been kidnapped by the criminals operating from Lyari.

Irfan went missing when he left for work from his home in Old Golimar on August 17, 2011, said his father, adding that they started getting ransom calls from alleged kidnappers soon after. “I’ve already paid Rs200,000 as ransom and gave a motorcycle to the kidnapers, but my son has yet to return home,” the helpless father had told the judges during the previous hearing.

On August 6, the court had ordered the Rangers and other law enforcement agencies to provide all-out logistic support to the local police to eliminate no-go areas. Furthermore, the home secretary was asked to seek help from the federal force, if necessary, to carry out a cleanup operation in the locality. When the matter was taken up on Thursday, the bench came to know that the Rangers had not filed any progress report in this regard. It ordered the Rangers Wing Commander for district central to provide logistic support to the anti-violent crime cell for arresting the culprits involved in the kidnapping for ransom.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.