ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif in a high-level meeting at Corps Headquarters Karachi directed all commanders to leave ‘no stone unturned’ finding the perpetrators behind the Amjad Sabri murder and Awais Shah kidnapping.
The army chief’s visit to Karachi comes a day after Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali expressed concern over the recent kidnapping of the son of the Sindh High Court chief justice, Awais Shah, saying that the incident caused a sense of insecurity among judges and their families.
Shah’s kidnapping and Sabri’s murder within days of each other caused fear and panic to spread among residents of Karachi, where citizens perceived an improvement in the law and order situation since the initiation of the Rangers-led operation in 2013.
Awais Ali Shah, a high court lawyer, was abducted near the Agha’s supermarket on Monday with police fearing the kidnapping may be used as a ‘bargaining chip’ to ensure the release of some captured militants.
On Wednesday, Amjad Sabri was gunned down by unknown assailants in Karachi’s Liaquatabad area, with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Mehsud group claiming responsibility for the attack.
As law enforcement agencies count successes in the ongoing operation against terrorists, banned outfits and militant wings of political and religious organisations, Karachiites have faced a sudden rise in street crimes, which has cost at least four lives during the first 10 days of Ramazan and raised fears for the days ahead.
Official data shows a sharp rise in cell phone and motorbike snatching in the first 10 days of holy month compared to crime rate during the corresponding period before Ramazan, indicating renewed activities of armed groups and individuals in the city despite ongoing Rangers-led operation.
The ‘operation’ against criminal elements in Pakistan’s commercial hub was initiated back in September 2013 after the federal cabinet empowered Rangers to lead a targeted advance with the support of police against criminals already identified by federal military and civilian agencies for their alleged involvement in targeted killings, kidnappings for ransom, extortion and terrorism in Karachi.
A high-level apex committee meeting chaired by the Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif on May 14, 2015 decided to implement effective policing and surveillance in the “vast suburbs of Karachi”, to prevent what the military spokesperson said were “sneaking terrorist attacks”.
Amid resentment and criticism from certain political circles over the ‘Karachi operation’, the military establishment in August said that there would be no let-up in actions by law enforcement agencies “to ensure a peaceful and terror-free Karachi”.
Although terror-related incidents have decreased up to 60 per cent in the two years since the commencement of the Karachi operation, sleeper cells of terror outfits still exist in the metropolis and law enforcers have been making concerted efforts to eliminate the same, Karachi Police AIG Mushtaq Maher said in September last year.
The city police chief had said 3,000 hardcore criminals had been arrested, while 246 terrorists, 38 kidnappers and ten extortionists had been killed so far in police encounters.
Maher had said that car-snatching incidents reported in the city were the lowest in the past 15 years while motorcycle-snatching incidents were on the rise, which he said will be curtailed.
Rangers spokesman Colonel Amjad maintained that 913 terrorists including 550 target killers were nabbed while 15,400 illegal weapons were recovered from the custody of criminals operating within the city.
