System failure?: Law enforcers yet to make headway into Landhi attacks

Police and Rangers have detained over 100 suspects but have failed to find anything conclusive.

KARACHI: Law enforcement agencies continue their raids across the city and are interrogating a number of suspects in custody to find clues regarding the recent attacks on law enforcers.

The investigators have, however, failed to make any headway into the probe of the back-to-back attacks on the two police vans in Landhi on Saturday night that claimed the lives of six personnel of the police force.

What is all the more lamentable is the general apathy being shown by the higher ups in investigating the murders of their own colleagues. “I have just come back from my leave and have not really started investigating the matter yet. Now that you have asked, I will look into it,” said Investigations SSP Munir Shaikh, when contacted by The Express Tribune on Monday.



Two ASIs, one head constable and three constables lost their lives in the attacks carried out by armed motorcyclists in Landhi on Saturday night.

The first police van that came under attack was stationed at the corner of a street to guard the house of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi’s chief, Afaq Ahmed. The second attack was also believed to be carried out by the same assailants near the Landhi police station.

Since the incident, police and Rangers have detained around 100 suspects, including suspected members of banned outfits as well as workers and sympathisers of a political party and have also recorded the statements of the witnesses.

On Monday, police and Rangers also carried out a search operation in Quaidabad, Bilal Colony and their adjoining slum areas to try and arrest the assailants. They failed to trace the culprits but did manage to arrest four people with weapons. The suspects were shifted to an undisclosed location for further questioning.

“It all happened so quickly”,” a police officer, Shoaib Alam told The Express Tribune. “We have yet to determine which group could be behind the attacks and why.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2014.