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Thursday March 28, 2024

Karachi operation review paints mostly a rosy picture

By Salis bin Perwaiz
December 17, 2017

KARACHI: The Rangers-led Karachi operation completed four years this year, and a review of the paramilitary force’s performance since 2013 paints quite a rosy picture of the city’s current law and order situation.

The News has obtained a report that reviews the Sindh Rangers’ operational activities and actions taken against terrorists and criminals across the metropolis over the past four years.

An official of the force said on Saturday that the pre-operation environment in the city was quite disturbing, especially considering the terrorist attacks that preceded the Karachi operation.

In 2012 the Clifton bomb blast left six dead and 45 injured, the IED attack on a Bohra jamaatkhana left seven dead and 18 injured, and the Malir police APC blast left four dead and 16 injured.

The next year the Abbas Town IED attack left 40 dead and 100 injured, the Orangi Town bomb blast in a rickshaw left a dozen dead and 39 injured, and the attack on the ANP’s Landhi office left 11 dead and 32 injured.

The Rangers official said that another core issue of the city was target killings, with around three to four attacked a day, while a kidnapping and up to four cases of extortion threats were reported in a day.

In late 2013 the federal government empowered the paramilitary force to primarily conduct operations against four categories of crime: terrorism, target killing, extortion and kidnapping for ransom – under Clause (i) of Subsection (3) of Section 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (Amended), November 7, 2013 to date.

Moreover, the federal government also granted the paramilitary force the power of preventive detention for the period between June 15, 2014 and June 14, 2016. The Rangers are operating in interior Sindh under Article 147 of the Constitution and under the SOP issued by the provincial home department.

The Rangers’ four-year performance review shows that since 2013 the force has conducted 11,400 operations in which 8,955 were arrested and later handed over to the officials of the respective police precincts. Among the arrested suspects 1,978 were terrorists, 1,615 target killers, 612 extortionists and 163 kidnappers. They also seized 12,147 weapons of different calibres with 767,319 rounds of ammunition.

This January street crime was added to the force’s mandate, following which they have arrested 928 street criminals, 475 dacoits, 325 drug peddlers, 38 gamblers, 12 pickpockets and 10 snatchers.

In 2013, 4,508 four-wheelers were snatched and 981 stolen, but this year snatchings and thefts were brought down to a total of 1,377, according to the Rangers’ report.

With around 23,000 motorbikes snatched and more than 5,000 stolen in 2013, the snatchings and thefts of two-wheelers continue to be a persistent problem, as 25,000 cases were reported this year. The Rangers official said the force was making all-out efforts to control the situation.

Twenty-two thousand mobile phones were snatched and 12,000 stolen in 2013. At 31,000 the snatchings increased in 2014, and then again the next year with 39,000 reported cases. Last year the figure decreased to 35,000, but this year it is 28,164 to date.

The Rangers official said the overall law and order situation in the city had also improved since 2013, when 57 terrorism cases were reported. The number reduced to 66 the next year, to 18 the year after that, to 16 last year and then to zero this year.

Target killings have also declined, with 965 cases in 2013, to 602 the next year, to 199 the year after that, to 89 last year and then to 45 this year.

With 1,524 extortion cases and 174 kidnappings for ransom in 2013, the paramilitary force has also brought down these crimes to 52 and 13 this year.