Karachi operation moves into higher gear

KARACHI: Two years after the Rangers launched a surgical operation to rid Karachi of terrorists and other criminals, the paramilitary force has announced that the campaign has entered the next phase.

In this phase, the Rangers will go after terrorists, contract killers and their facilitators, particularly those involved in attacks on law enforcers, security personnel, lawyers and witnesses, read a statement issued on Monday. The force has appealed to Karachiites to call, SMS or email the Rangers if they have any information on such criminals.



The Karachi operation was launched on September 5, 2013 on the orders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after it was endorsed by a multiparty confab.

According to the paramilitary force’s two-year performance report, 10,353 suspects have been arrested in 5,795 raids since the campaign’s launch. “The detainees include 826 terrorists, 334 target killers and 296 extortionists.”

The Rangers said 364 terrorists associated with various banned organisations – including al Qaeda, different factions of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi – were also killed in gunfights with the force. “Up to 7,312 weapons and 348,978 cartridges have been seized in the past two years.”

First stage of Karachi security operation complete: Rangers

Twenty-seven Rangers soldiers have lost their lives in the past two years.

The city police has also killed more than 500 suspected terrorists and criminals and arrested over 70,000 more. Since the launch of the operation, 250 policemen have also lost their lives in the line of duty.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2015.