ISLAMABAD: Rangers have arrested 7,950 persons since the execution of National Action Plan (NAP) on September 5, 2013 among which 6,361 were handed over to police and 221 to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) with evidence.
They also recovered a large amount of weapons and ammunition from the arrested persons. “We arrested 848 target killers who confessed more than 7,000 killing”, said an official of Pakistan Rangers Col. Qaiser.
Giving a detailed briefing to Senate functional committee on Human Rights the other day, he said among the arrested persons 1236 were terrorists, 848 target killers, 403 kidnappers for ransom.
He further informed that 5518 were released without registering First Information Report (FIR) against them, 1313 got bail and 188 convicted.
The Rangers official further stated that as result of these operations, terrorism was reduced 80 percent in the country while target killing decreased 75 percent. Besides that extortion, kidnapping for ransom and other crimes were also reduced to significant level, he stated.
He informed that there are chances of regathering of terrorist groups and other heinous nature crimes if the operation is not continued further.
The committee has also directed the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) to prepare a draft report on establishing a monitoring body on Sindh operation and present it before the committee.
Chairperson of the committee Senator Nasreen Jalil lauded the sacrifices of Rangers, police and law enforcement agencies for ensuring peace in Sindh and said that there should be a monitoring body which can monitor the operation.
The committee also directed to pass anti-torture legislation to check custodial killing.
The committee members said that Pakistan has signed international convention against torture and under it, the fundamental requirement is to enact legislation on it.
Giving briefing to the committee, a representative of Rangers Sindh informed the committee that in 2013 under national action plan, they were assigned four major tasks including to control terrorism, target killing, kidnapping for ransom and extortion.
At that time Karachi was ranked as the 6th most dangerous city of the world.
He informed that they were asked to destroy major terrorist groups, neutralize militant wings of political parties, check routine crimes and establish people’s confidence.
Deputy Investigation General (DIG) Investigation Punjab informed the committee that the situation of child abduction is not as much serious as portrayed by media.
He said that 187 children were reported missing from January to June this year and 24 other in July but among them 163 returned homes themselves and 28 were recovered by police.
