MULTAN: An anti-terrorism court Multan on Tuesday awarded death sentence on 18 counts to 20 gangsters including members of notorious Chotu gang and the ring leader, Ghulam Rasool alias Chotu, for killing six policemen in Rajanpur Kutcha area in 2016, Reported South Punjab News
Two other convicts, Qasim and Abdul Samad, who were below the age of 18, were awarded life imprisonment on 19 counts. Other gangs, whose members were awarded death sentences, included Sikhani gang, Inder gang and Changwani gang among others.
On April 13, 2016, police teams from Bangla Ichcha police station, along with policemen from other stations in Rajanpur district, had conducted an operation against the Chotu gang in a forest area.
The police teams, however, came under attack from the criminals, in which six policemen were martyred and another eight were injured. Twenty-four other policemen were taken hostage by these gangsters. However, they were released by the criminals after nine days, court officials told South Punjab News. On April 17, 2016, Army helicopter gunships on Monday pounded the island hideout of an armed gang that has been holding 24 hostages on a 10-km (six-mile) long island in the centre of the Indus River, media and army sources said.
The operation involving more than 2,000 security forces has been ongoing for two weeks and the army’s push to deploy troops, artillery and helicopter gunships is an unprecedented use of force by the military in Punjab.
“We (army) had given the Chotu gang until 2 p.m. today to surrender but they did not abide by the deadline,” said a military official based in the district of Rajanpur where the battle is taking place.
“Now there is no option left but a full-scale operation, which has started.”
It was unclear just how many members of the Chotu gang, blamed for hundreds of cases of kidnapping for ransom, murder and robbery, were trapped on the island, but police said their families were believed to be accompanying them.
A private news channel also reported that a full-scale operation had been launched. TV footage showed army commandos firing machine guns at the island and gunship helicopters flying overhead.
Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced that General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed, the most senior commanding officer in the area, had arrived earlier in the day “to see preparation for impending operation against criminals”
While the country’s attention has for years been focused on the Taliban and al Qaeda threat on the Afghan border in the remote northwest, militants and criminals have quietly expanded their influence and won recruits in Punjab.
At least six police officials have been killed in the battle for the island, launched in a sweeping crackdown after a Taliban suicide bombing killed 72 people in Lahore last month.
The battle was taking place near Rajanpur where the Panjnad River flows into the Indus.
Previous military crackdowns have focused on the lawless tribal regions where the Taliban and other militants are based. Paramilitary Rangers also launched a crackdown on criminals in the southern port city of Karachi in 2013.The convicts included Ghulam Rasool alias Chotu, his brother Pyara, Nadir, Deen Muhammad, Khalid alias Khaldi, Ishaq alias Bilal, Akram alias Akri, Ghulam Haidar, Hakim, Razzaq, Majid, Nasir, Sher Khan, Jumma alias Bhutta, Rasheed, Behram, Bashir, Abdul Wahid, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, and Hussain Bakhsh.
The convicts were awarded death sentence on six counts under Section 302 PPC, six counts under Section of the 7 Anti-Terrorism Act and another six count death sentence under Section 3 of Explosive Substance Act 1908.
The convicts were also slapped with Rs6.2 million fine each or undergo additional imprisonment in case of default. All the 20 accused would also undergo life imprisonment.
The ringleader of a notorious criminal gang reportedly surrendered late Tuesday night along with 175 comrades, bringing to a non-violent end a 21-day-long operation in the riverine area of Rajanpur district of South Punjab.
The gang of Ghulam Rasool, alias Chottu, also released 24 policemen seized a week ago when the Punjab police had made an unsuccessful attempt to storm the island hideout of criminals in Kacha Jamal area, sources told South Pubnjab News
They said that Chottu agreed to turn himself in as the military was preparing to launch an assault against his gang holed up in the island.
The army took command of the operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Aahan, on April 15 in an effort to rescue the 24 policemen abducted by the Chutto gang a week ago. Negotiations between the authorities and the gangsters had been ongoing since the hostage-taking.
While helicopter gunships continued to target hideouts of the Chottu gang in Kacha Jamal on Tuesday, ground troops did not use heavy weaponry for the safety of the kidnapped policemen.
The military had launched a full-fledged assault using helicopter gunships, surveillance drones and heavy artillery with unconfirmed reports also suggesting movement of tanks in Kacha Jamal, Shahwali and Sonmiani areas.
A member of the Chottu gang was arrested in the day when four bandits tried to escape the island. However, three of them managed to run back into the riverine forest. The arrested gangster, identified as Ramzan Machhi, a resident of Chak Umrani, was shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Sources said the gang had been using the kidnapped policemen, and women and children as a human shield during the operation, forcing the military not to take decisive action. The bombproof tanks transported to the island had been held back.
Army helicopters, on the instructions of the interior ministry, dropped pamphlets asking the criminals to surrender, offering them leniency along with a last warning to the gangsters.
Sources in the irrigation department told South Pubnjab News that authorities were trying to control the flow of water at Taunsa Barrage to help the military reach Chottu gang’s hideouts.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government issued names of 96 criminals associated with the Chottu gang, setting up to Rs2 million bounties on the heads of some of them
The list includes many facilitators of Chottu from Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh districts.
The interior ministry has also summoned the case records of these criminals from the relevant police stations across the province.
