Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar at a presser at the DPO office here said an intelligence-based operation against the outlaws was already in progress for the last few months after kidnap-for-ransom cases increased this year.
He said the grand operation was launched in the early hours of Sunday on the reports of a premiere intelligence agency of the country and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab.
Dr Anwar said both the agencies were keeping an eye on the activities of criminals in the area and their facilitators. “We are treating the facilitators based in the riverbed as terrorists and warned them against giving shelters to the outlaws.”
Sources said the operation was started in Machka and Katcha Karachi areas where several hideouts of the criminal were eliminated. They said the IGP and his team came under fire when they reached Machka.
The IGP said mainstreaming the katcha area dwellers by opening schools, dispensaries and building roads along the river was necessary to stop misuse of the territory. The IGP said office of the CTD head is being shifted to Rahim Yar Khan till the completion of the operation. “To maintain law and order in the area, there is a need of a very strict operation to clear the area from criminals.”
He said according to the National Security Council (NSC) decisions all resources would be provided to the police. He said it was an ideal time for police to establish/restore check posts in the area before monsoon.
A press release issued by the office of the Regional Police Officer of Bahawalpur Rai Babar Saeed identified the dead as Mustafa who was killed during the exchange of fire. The RPO said 11,000 police personnel drawn from other police ranges had participated in Sunday’s operation. They included 5,000 personnel from the Punjab Constabulary and 2,000 from Multan, DG Khan and Bahawalpur police ranges.
Meanwhile, Dacoits looted Rs1.1 million, snatched a bike and iPhone from a trader near the Dashti Farm area of Machka at 6pm when the IGP was leading the operation, it is learnt Katcha area
The Indus bed falling between Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur districts is 15 to 20km wide where water runs in the shape of large and small steams for 10 to 11 months in a year. It is completely filled during monsoon floods.
The kacha area which stretches up to Dehrki and Obaro in Sindh is over 100km long. So far six major operations have been carried out in the area since 2006.During the 2016 operation against the Chotu gang, army was called out after police failure to clear the area.
The IGP did not agree with a questioner that main police operations in the area had been carried out in the past during the wheat harvesting season and bulk of the yield was taken away by the personnel posted or patrolling in the area.
Honey trap
During the last two years, the gangsters had changed their kidnap strategy. They now phone their potential victims and lure them through girls with marriage offers. Through this mode, they would strike in the entire Punjab. In a couple of cases, their victims came from Peshawar.
In some cases, they would attract people by offering them used tractors, cars and bikes at cheap prices.
Lawmakers belonging to the riverine area along the Sindh-Punjab border decried the poor law and order situation in their constituencies due to unchecked activities of criminal gangs and called for an army operation as the situation had gone beyond the control of police.
Speaking on points of order in the National Assembly soon after a brief question hour, the members belonging to both the treasury as well as the opposition benches, strongly protested against the local authorities, including the police, for “giving a free hand” to dacoits and criminals.
Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf referred the issue to the house committee on interior with a directive to come back with suggestions to resolve the matter.
The issue was raised by Sheikh Fayyazuddin of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from Rahimyar Khan, who informed the house that dacoits had kidnapped two schoolchildren from Khanpur city earlier in the morning. Recently, he said, a video of two kidnapped men had gone viral on social media in which the dacoits were seen demanding the release of their accomplices from custody. They had threatened to kidnap children, if their demands were not met.
A Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) dissident from Rajanpur, Sardar Riaz Mazari, endorsed the PML-N MNA’s views and said he had been raising this issue on the floor of the assembly for the past four years, but to no avail.
Mr Mazari said several governments at the centre and the provinces had come and gone, but there had been no improvement in the area as far as the crime situation is concerned, exposing the powerlessness of local authorities and police.
“If the task is too tough for police, then use the army,” he suggested, stating that criminals had sent messages to locals asking them to give them five to 10 maunds of wheat as extortion when the crop would be ready. He claimed that even police had informed the deputy commissioner concerned that they could not perform duties during the ongoing census in the area.
Mr Mazari said that on one hand people were still reeling from the effects of rains and floods, while on the other they had been abandoned by the authorities to face the dacoits. He pointed out that criminals and dacoits had extended their activities from Rojhan and Rahimyar Khan, in Punjab, to Kashmore and Ghotki, in Sindh, fearing that soon they would spread throughout the country.
The PTI MNA said that last week he received a call from a PML-N MNA from Okara, Moeen Wattoo, who sought help for the recovery of two men kidnapped from his constituency. Mr Mazari said he informed Mr Wattoo that he could not do anything as his own people were being kidnapped.
Mr Mazari called for a “targeted operation” by army in the area.
Mr Wattoo took the floor and endorsed the call for military operation, stating that police were perhaps not capable of handling the situation.
It may be recalled that the Sindh cabinet on March 10 had approved a plan to procure military grade weapons and surveillance equipment for police to launch a grand operation clean-up against dacoits with the support of Pakistan Army and Rangers in the riverine area of the province.
The cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, authorised the inspector general of police to contact the police chiefs of Balochistan and Punjab so that a coordinated operation could be planned in the katcha areas.
The IGP had reportedly informed the cabinet that the weapons and surveillance system were required to take on hardened criminal gangs operating in the riverine area of Kashmore, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts.
