Police identify five reasons behind killings

Karachi
The police have identified five major reasons behind continuing target killings in the city, and proposed that the government should ensure close coordination among the stakeholders to regulate rallies, informed sources said on Monday.

The police said public meetings and rallies took much of their time and energy, leaving them with little time to tackle the real problem of law and order.

The sources told The News that Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Fayaz Ahmed Leghari had identified in a recent meeting at the Sindh Secretariat five main factors behind the continuing killings in the provincial capital.

He said recent demographic changes had created tensions between different communities over “capturing the political turf”.

The IGP noted that ethnicity, sectarianism and factional infighting were other major reasons behind the murder and mayhem. Besides, he said, clashes between land and extortion mafias contributed towards killings and lawlessness.

It was pointed out at the meeting that the clash of interests among ethnic groups and the Lyari gang war were also to blame. Apart from these fault lines, the police believed that easy access to illicit weapons and misuse of arms licences were contributory factors behind the killings.

The police believed that frequent protests and rallies were diverting their attention from addressing the problem of lawlessness.

The provincial police chief stated that protests were sparked by social unrest, power outages, political and religious issues etc. He said crowd control and handling of public rallies and protests took much of the police’s time and energy.

He further pointed out that on average around seven processions/rallies were being staged in the city on a daily basis and almost all such rallies led towards the Red Zone — the area where such activities are prohibited for security reasons as well as on account of disturbances and agonising traffic jams they cause.

The police claimed that they were conducting regular search operations and raids to arrest target killers and other criminal elements, and had achieved some success by arresting several target killers.

Tribal feuds

While major urban areas are witnessing target killings, rural areas are suffering bloody tribal feuds, which has been another major cause of concern for the authorities.

The police told the meeting that the tribal feuds were one of the major irritants affecting public order, especially in upper Sindh, as around 37 major bloody tribal feuds were ongoing in some parts of the province. These feuds have taken the lives of 511 people and caused injuries to 350 others between 2002 and 2012.

“Tribal feuds not only erode the writ of the government but also nurture hard core criminals,” the police said.

In order to eradicate the illegal Jirga system that decides such matters, the provincial police have registered 32 criminal cases against the perpetrators this year.

Karo-Kari

Another major factor that claims several lives each year in the province is Karo-Kari killings (the so-called honour killings) in Sindh.

The police meeting was told that the province had the highest number of incidents of karo-kari mainly owing to the “tribal composition and feudal-sardari system”.

It was also noted that karo-kari incidents tended to trigger personal/tribal feuds, resulting in serious policing problems.

The police were of the opinion that the Pakistan Penal Code should be amended to make honour killing a non-compoundable murder for prosecuting the culprits.

For curbing this abhorring practice, the police with help of the UNDP has set up cells in upper Sindh to collect data on such cases and closely follow them up for prosecution.

Furthermore, a media campaign has been launched to create awareness about karo-kari, while human rights cells have been established in all districts and a dedicated helpline 1213 has been launched in the Sukkur region in this regard.

De-weaponisation

Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Monday said with the help of all political parties in Sindh, Karachi could be de-weaponised. He added the police officers who failed to perform their duties of controlling killings in the metropolis had not right to remain on their official posts.

Khuhro said the police and Rangers should take indiscriminate actions to control the law and order situation, which was worsening by the day.

The speaker said the loss of innocent lives could not be tolerated, assuring that the government was taking measures to maintain peace.

He was speaking to media after his meeting with Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan Greg Giokas.

Khuhro said Sindh would always remain unified and there was no possibility of its division. He said the PPP was the custodian of Sindh and would continue playing its part to protect it.

He advised Mian Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the PML- N, to cease dreaming of coming into power through back doors.

The speaker said the general elections would be held after March, 2013, as he believed that times had changed and democratic governments would not be sent home before the completion of their tenures.

He said the real face of Nawaz Sharif had been exposed after the Asghar Khan case verdict, adding that the politics of Sharif brothers would now shrink to the GT road only. He said Nawaz Sharif should be disqualified as he received money from the ISI for rigging polls in the 1990s.

Earlier, the Canadian high commissioner called on Khuhro in his chamber. They discussed Pakistan-Canada relations, law and order situation, other matters of mutual interests, and legislation in the Sindh Assembly.

The speaker also presented the traditional Sindhi gifts of Ajrak to the envoy.

Posted in: Karachi News