Bystanders caught in crossfire between Lyari drug peddlers

All victims of armed conflict were passersby, no one from the two gangs was hurt.

KARACHI: Two teenagers were killed and a middle-aged woman was injured during a one-hour long armed conflict in Orangi Town between two groups of drug peddlers, allegedly linked to Lyari gangs. All victims were passersby and no one from the two gangs was hurt.

Omer Baloch Mohalla in Faqir Colony, a Baloch-dominated area of Orangi that comes under the jurisdiction of the Mominabad police, echoed with the sound of shots being fired when members of the rival groups suddenly opened fire at one another around 11 am. The battle ended an hour later when the law-enforcement agencies intervened.

The victims were all residents of the same area and were moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where 18-year-old Abdul Latif and 17-year-old Dost Mohammad succumbed to their injuries. Zarina, 50, wife of Nabi Buksh, who was shot in the hand, was admitted.

Around 200 policemen and Rangers jawans cautiously approached the neighbourhood in armoured personnel carriers to carry out a door-to-door search operation. Most of the suspects, however, were reported to have escaped before they arrived.

Residents were not happy about the operation and several of them, including women and children, tried to stop the law enforcers. The officials responded with batons and soon the crowd dispersed.

Fourteen suspects were arrested during the three-hour long search, said SHO Mominabad Majeed Marwat. He said they also seized weapons, drugs and motorcycles from the suspects’ possession.

Detained men included Asif, Taj Mohammad, Asim, Ameer and Ghulam Hussain, who were taken into custody along with three TT pistols, one 9mm pistol, one Kalashnikov, 14 kilogrammes of hashish, 250 grammes of heroin and two snatched motorcycles.

“The gunbattle was between members of the gang led by Ashiq Rasheed alias Bholu, who is affiliated with Lyari’s infamous gangster Rehman Dakait, and members of Saeed Kajal alias Captain’s group. Kajal is a close aide of Dakait’s rival Ghaffar Zikri,” said SHO Marwat informed The Express Tribune.

He said while the investigation was still premature, they believed the groups had fought over their business and operating in each other’s areas.

The deceased, Latif, was a mechanic by profession while Dost Mohammad was a labourer. Their relatives blamed the police, saying they never took action against the drug peddlers. They said their loved ones would not be killed if the police had taken reliable action in the past. “We need a permanent elimination of these gangsters from our area,” they demanded.

On the other hand, police officials said that majority of the criminals hail from Hub, Balochistan and every time an operation is carried out in the area, these men escape to Balochistan and even Iran.

Orangi SP Khurram Waris also held a press conference at the Mominabad police station on Wednesday evening. The SP assured that a heavy contingent of law enforcers has been deployed in the locality. The arrested suspects are being interrogated and some of them are those who were already wanted by the police, he said.

Cases will be registered against them after investigations are completed. Waris also informed the media that a police constable, Zahid, who had participated in the search operation, also sustained a bullet injury.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.