CM tells home secretary to shortlist more cases for trial in military courts

Karachi
Eighteen terrorists have been executed at Sindh’s jails as part of the National Action Plan so far, but the death warrants of four others have been stayed by courts.
Chief secretary Siddique Memon, home secretary Mukhtiar Soomro, and IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali, in a joint presentation, told the chief minister on Saturday that the provincial government had recommended 74 cases for their trial in military courts.
Of them, the interior ministry had approved only three – the attack on a Rangers vehicle in Sachal, the killing of DSP Quaidabad Kamal Mangan in a bomb blast in Sherpao Colony, Landhi in January 2013, and a third case related to the second one.
On the stayed death warrants of four convicts, chief minister Qaim Ali directed the chief secretary, the Sindh advocate general and the law secretary to work efficiently on these cases in the courts so that the stay orders were vacated and the executions could take place.
The home secretary said his department had scrutinised for their trial in military courts and eight of them had been cleared including the attack on Justice Maqbool Baqar, the Nishtar Park blast, an attack in which four policemen were killed, the attack on the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station, a murder on sectarian grounds in New Karachi and five other related cases.
The chief minister directed the home secretary to shortlist more cases because Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had already ordered the establishment of more military courts in Karachi.
Talking about Rangers achievements from September 5, 2013 to August 17, 2015, the home secretary said the paramilitary force had conducted 5,867 raids in which 10,438 criminals, including 498 terrorists, were rounded up.
During these operations, 490 target killers were killed, 341 extortionists arrested, and 50 kidnap victims rescued.
In different encounters, Rangers killed 464 terrorists, seized 7,787 weapons and 349,854 bullets and other ammunition.
On the issue of hate speeches, the chief secretary said 1,023 cases were registered under the loudspeaker law, 813 people nominated in FIRs, 552 arrested and 810 charge-sheeted.
Talking about the police action in Lyari, the IGP said 130 gangsters had surrendered their arms. He added that drug and gambling desns in the city had reduced by 90 percent and exceptional decrease in highway robberies was also witnessed.
Only 19 highway robberies occurred this year against 68 in 2014.
He said that the number of madrassas in Sindh was being re-verified through the police’s special branch and the process would be completed within a week.
Besides, he added, a digital map of the the seminaries in the province was being prepared through geo-tagging and this exercise would be completed within 15 days.
The chief minister directed the IGP to increase the police force’s coordination with Rangers and intelligence agencies to trace terrorists hiding in Karachi as well as other areas in the province.