Rangers recover more than 70,000 surgical masks in Karachi raid: report

KARACHI: Sindh Rangers on Saturday carried out a raid in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal locality in Karachi and recovered more than 70,000 surgical masks, reported Geo News. The raid came a day after the Supreme Court ordered the government to crack down on hoarders.

Price of surgical masks skyrocketed in Karachi earlier this week after two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the country. According to reports, masks had either disappeared from medical stores in the city or were being sold at exorbitant prices across the metropolis.

In light of the SC directives, an operation by Sindh Rangers was carried out in Block 2 of the ECHS locality, sources informed Geo News. However, the masks were discovered from Block 13-D of the locality, after a suspect, identified as Muhammad Usman, was arrested.

A spokesperson for Sindh Rangers told the press that 200 transfusion drips were also recovered during the operation. A shopkeeper was also arrested from the Water Pump square of the city. "The shopkeeper was selling the masks at Rs1,650 each," the spokesperson said.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday ordered the federal and provincial governments to submit a response to court regarding the overpriced sale of protective equipment meant to guard against the coronavirus to citizens in the port city of Karachi.

The high court sought replies in this regard from the Chief Secretary of Sindh, the Secretary of Health, Commissioner of Karachi and other federal and provincial officials dealing with the possible spread of the pandemic across the country.

The court asked the authorities to ensure that there was no hoarding of the protective equipment meant to guard against the virus. It also directed the government to make sure that the equipment that was selling in the open market was being sold at a reasonable price.

In the directives issued, the court expressed concern over the fact that the protective equipment against the virus was being sold at high prices, saying that the black marketing of protective masks was beyond belief in these times of public health crisis.