Operation to be launched against bandits involved in kidnappings for ransom: CM

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to conduct a ruthless and vigorous operation against bandits in the katcha area of the Sukkur and Larkana division, where cases of kidnappings for ransom are on the increase.

He took this decision on Thursday while going through police reports filed in his secretariat. He also called Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah and Home Secretary Kazi Kabir and discussed the proposed operation with them and directed them to summon a law and order meeting so that the planning and strategy for the operation could be finalised.

The chief minister said that kidnappings for ransom were a heinous crime and could not be tolerated. In the katcha area of Larkana, Sukkur, Khairpur upto Nawabshah, some bandits had established their hideouts and through the outlaws operating in the cities were engaged in kidnapping innocent people.

He said the operation would not be confined to the katcha area from Shaheed Benazirabad to Kashmore, but it would be directed towards the patharidars or facilitators of dacoits.

The chief minister said that he was convening a high-level law and order meeting within the next few days to finalise a strategy for the proposed operation in consultation with the inspector general of police and other officers.

Shah has already directed the IGP to recover the kidnapped people from the clutches of the dacoits. “I would not tolerate the emergence of the dacoit factor in the province once again,” he said.

He said that the overall law and order in Sindh was satisfactory, but the newly emerged issue of kidnappings for ransom and street crime in Karachi had become new challenges.

Karachi’s additional IG was working to crush street criminals, while the operation against bandits in northern and central parts of Sindh was the need of the hour.

The targeted operation launched against drug peddlers, terrorists and other outlaws was going on successfully in which police, Rangers and intelligence agencies were working hard, the chief minister said and added a similar operation was on the cards against dacoits in katcha areas.

Fumigation

The chief minister directed the Karachi commissioner Karachi to keep an on eye on low- lying areas where rainwater had accumulated and get the water drained at the earliest.

He also directed the commissioner to start fumigation in the city, saying the cleaning of nullahs and leaving their garbage along the roads had produced flies and mosquitoes in the city. “This is bound to spared diseases; therefore, it must be controlled by launching a fumigation drive,” he said.

The managing director of the KWSB through a report told the chief minister that a suction machine placed on a truck was installed on Sharea Faisal at Gora Qabrustan and pumped out water accumulated there. Another such vehicle drained out water from the main road where the JPMC and other hospitals are located.

Weather warning

The rehabilitation department issued a weather warning on Thursday, which said that the Karachi Met office had issued a weather warning and forecasted that the prevailing spell of rain in Sindh was very likely to intensify in the next 24 hour, producing moderate to heavy rains particularly in Karachi, Thatta, Jamshoro, Dadu, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Naushehroferoze, Badin, Sanghar and Larkana districts from Thursday evening to Friday evening.

The weather warning said that in Karachi due to heavy rainfall in the range between 50 and 70 mm (during 1600/Thu-1200PST/Friday), the situation of urban flooding in the city may further be aggravated on Friday.