Cleansing Karachi: Operation to continue till its logical end says Memon

Says arrested criminals will be tried under the new ordinance.

KARACHI:

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Iman Memon on Monday said the targeted operation in Karachi would continue till the city was purged of all the criminal elements.

“At this moment we cannot give you when it will end. We will continue this operation till its logical end whether it takes four months or four years,” he said while addressing a press conference after the law and order meeting at Chief Minister House.

Memon lauded the efforts of the police and Rangers, and said the trials against the arrested criminals would be carried out under the newly promulgated ordinance.

Sharing the statistics, the minister said the police and Rangers have conducted around 3,500 raids and had arrested around 900 suspects including the extortionists and targeted killers.



Option to impose curfew to recover illegal arms

Memon said the provincial government was aware that the people would not voluntarily surrender their illegal arms. “But government kicked off the operation to comply with Supreme Court’s orders under which the option to impose curfew and recover the arms is still available.”

He acknowledged the operation in its first phase had not yielded good results, adding that they would move on to the second phase which, according to him, would be result-oriented. “We have not yet decided to impose curfew, but this option is available,” he said.

Talking about probing the suspects, he said that the police officers were working as investigation officers. “But in law and order meeting, it had been decided to appoint around 200 new investigation officers,” he said, adding that only law graduates would be appointed to this position.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2013.