Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah while presiding over 27th Apex Committee meeting, directed law enforcement agencies to launch targeted operation against 787 repeat offenders, 540 drug dealers and 244 land-grabbers identified through an extensive exercise apart from carrying out intelligence based combing operation against anti-social and anti-state elements to curb the terrorist incidents taking place in the city.

The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Nasir Shah, Sharjeel Memon, advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Corps Commander Karachi Lt Gen M Saeed Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Advocate General Sindh, IG Sindh Mushtaq Maher, DG rangers Major Gen Iftikhar Chaudhry, Prosecutor General, Adl IGs Karachi, CDT, Special Branch, PSCM Fayaz Jatoi, Home secretary Saeed Mangnijo, provincial head of Intelligence agencies and other concerned officers.

The Apex Committee, at the outset of the meeting, condemned killing of three Chinese teachers at Karachi University and vowed to bring the culprit to book through coordinated, comprehensive, and intelligence-based operation for which the meeting was told that different parties have been constituted by different agencies to unearth the mastermind of the attack. The chief minister, in consultation with the all the agencies/participants, including intelligence decided to further strengthen intelligence network and worked out its sharing mechanism so that timely operation could be conducted against the terrorists.

The meeting also condemned the blast at Saddar and the law enforcement agencies were directed to investigate the attack and act accordingly.

The meeting was told that top investigators were investigating the attack on Chinese teachers. Various aspects have been covered in the investigations which are leading to the culprits, the mastermind and their facilitators. The CTD has collected solid evidence to work out the incident.

Various evidences have been collected into the Saddar blast and that evidence would definitely reach the agencies to the culprits. The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the social media being used/operated by the terrorist outfits and other criminal groups. The names and identification of terrorist outfits and their social media accounts were identified with number of their followers, traffic on their accounts.

The premier agencies were assigned the task to comb out those who were spreading venomous material on social media, brainwashing the innocent youngsters against the state and institutions and instigating them to kill innocent people as was done in Karachi University. “We will have to control the anti-state and anti-social elements by using the latest technology, gadgets and tools, including social media.

The meeting was informed that through an extensive exercise conducted in the criminal record of the criminals operating in the city 787 persons have been identified as repeat offenders, 540 drug dealers and 244 land grabbers.

The lists of the identified criminals prepared by the agencies were shared with each other (police, Rangers and Corps headquarter) so that action as decided by the chief minister could be accelerated.

In the list names of the criminals, their addresses, CNICs, mobile numbers, photos or exposure, age have been mentioned. It was pointed out that most of the street criminals, drug dealers or land grabbers might be used by the terrorists in their anti-state activities. The meeting was told that in 2013 the street crime cases were recorded at 1,506 cases per month, but they have increased to 3,939 per month in 2002.

At this it was argued that in 2013 people were afraid and had no confidence in the police to register the case but with the passage of time the public confidence in police has improved and they have started registering their cases. The task of installation of trackers in motorcycles was assigned to new Transport Minister Shrjeel Inam Memon. This matter comes into the meeting off and on but now it needs to be implemented, the CM said.

In the previous Apex committee meeting it was decided to construct roads in the katcha area so that kidnapping cases and the cases of smuggling of arms and ammunition.

At this the chief minister said that 27 out of 57-kilometer roads have been constructed and he directed the chief secretary to ensure allocation of more funds in the next year’s budget so that the remaining portions of the roads could be constructed.

It was pointed out in the meeting that during different protests and rallies slogans were raised against the state and state institutions. The chief minister said that such an attitude was not acceptable. He added that he would not tolerate such elements. Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the police and Rangers to monitor such elements and take action against them.

The meeting also took serious notice of the blats on the railway track and directed the agencies to act against the involved persons. The meeting was told that around 400,000 unregistered Afghan nationals were living in Karachi. As many as 71,429 Afghanis have registration card holders and illegal immigrants of other nationalities are in addition to them.

It was pointed out that the cross-border relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan has a long and varied history. There was no proper mechanism for registration of Afghan refugees, therefore it was decided to request the federal government to strengthen the border management system so that illegal immigrants could not manage to penetrate.

The chief minister directed intelligence agencies to prepare a separate party with a solo assignment of keeping an eye on illegal immigrants living in different localities of the city which have already been identified. Several incidents of illegal occupation of government/ private land by land grabbers have surfaced, these land grabbers have strong linkages with criminal elements.