Karachi police arrested 20,155 suspects in raids during 2020

The year 2020 wasn’t good for the entire world because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But for Karachi it was also bad due to terrorism and other crimes when compared to the preceding years.

The annual police report for 2020 said that Karachi’s latest rank in an international crime index was 105, which was an improvement from the sixth position a few years ago, so no doubt it reflected the success of the city police and other law enforcement agencies.

For the first time budget was allocated by the Sindh government on police station level in an effort to eliminate corruption and change the prevalent “Thaana culture”.

According to the Karachi police’s annual report for 2020, law enforcers arrested 20,155 suspects in targeted raids. These included 269 suspects involved in high-profile terrorism incidents.

Police engaged in 241 shoot-outs with criminals and arrested 764 street criminals red-handed. Fifteen police officials embraced martyrdom and 44 others were injured. Forty-nine terrorists and other criminals were also killed.

The weapons seized by the police were listed as 5,324 pistols, revolvers and mousers, 32 Kalashnikovs and sub-machine guns, 67 rifles and 107 hand grenades.

The report said that 10,415 drug peddlers were arrested while 4,710 kilograms of hashish, 84kg heroin, 14kg crystal meth, 13kg crystal and 51kg opium were recovered during the anti-narcotics campaign.

Police claimed to have arrested a number of terrorists and their supporters as well as recovered huge caches of explosives, detonators, hand grenades and other material used in bombings.

The report said that the police foiled an attempt to attack the Pakistan Stock Exchange by killing the three assailants within eight minutes. The police department also lost 17 officials to the coronavirus outbreak.

Police arrested 3,405 members of 189 gangs involved in stealing vehicles. Moreover, 474 suspects were arrested by the police helpline 15 officials with the recovery of 127 weapons. The report said that 19,909 CCTV cameras were also installed across the city in collaboration with the private sector and the people of the city.