‘Uzair Baloch in contact with RAW, Iranian spy agency’

KARACHI: The government has decided to conduct the trial of former Lyari gangster and chief of the proscribed People’s Amn Committee in a military court.

According to a private television channel report on Saturday, Baloch was allegedly in contact with foreign spy agencies, including the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and an Iranian intelligence agency.

Baloch was arrested on January 30, 2016 by the Sindh Rangers who claimed to have apprehended him from outside Karachi. “The gang leader was arrested in a targeted operation outside Karachi, in the early hours of Saturday as he attempted to enter the metropolis,” a press release issued by the paramilitary force had stated.

A month later, Sindh’s Home Ministry issued a notification regarding the formation of a Joint Investigation Tribunal (JIT) to question the notorious gang war leader about his activities.

He took control of the PAC in August 2009 and is alleged to have been involved in a range of criminal activities including killings, extortion and terrorism. The PAC was banned on October 2011.

Uzair Baloch took over as the leader of Peoples Amn Committee in August 2009 when the notorious Abdul Rahman Baloch alias Rahman Dakait was killed in an encounter more than a year after the PPP government came to power.

Though the committee is presented as a community group by its leaders, it is blamed for its criminal activities, which included killings, extortion and drugs business by the police

Currently, as many as 55 cases are pending against Uzair Baloch in various courts. Of these cases, one relates to the murder of Arshad Pappu and another relates to keeping weapons and explosives.