KARACHI – Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that maintaining law and order in the province was top priority of his government.
The country is passing through a sensitive phase of its history, particularly after the arrest of a India’s RAW agent from Balochistan and his disclosures that RAW agents were operating in Karachi. Therefore, necessary measures are required to cope with the situation, he said.
He said this while presiding over a high level meeting on law and order situation in the province, said a statement. The chief minister said that there were three different issues focused that included arrest of RAW agent from Balochistan and his disclosures of operating in Karachi, overall law and order situation and sit-in of some religious parties at Naumaish here.
These issues were important and there should be a clear cut policy and strategy to handle them, he said. The meeting was told that different agencies have arrested a number of criminals who had received training from India.
This shows that the arrested RAW agent from Balochistan might have links with them and have operated in Karachi through some of them. The Sindh CM directed the concerned agencies to work on those lines so that RAW network, if any, in the province, particularly in Karachi could be crushed.
The meeting also pointed out that after arrest of the RAW agent, necessary measures have been taken to further strengthen the intelligence network. Proper vigilance of the markets, parks, schools and other important places like railway stations, bus stands, hospitals have been made more effective.
The Sindh CM said that Lahore-like attacks must be avoided through intelligence sharing and CCTV coverage. It was pointed out that the sit-in at Naumaish Chowrangi has disturbed the traffic flow almost in the entire city while a similar type of sit-in has also been staged at Islamabad.
The security of the people gathered at Naumaish is also a big question after arrest of RAW agent. On this, the Sindh CM said that he was leading a political government and the situation needed to be handled with dialogue.
He said that he is not in favour of using force and urged the Karachi commissioner to talk to them and convince them to disburse peacefully in the larger interest of the city. Qaim pointed out that the incidents of kidnapping for ransom and short-term kidnappings have started emerging again. Street crime has come down but it is yet to be addressed properly.
On this, IGP AD Khwaja said that the police was intolerant on kidnapping and such other heinous crime. The SIU in an encounter recovered Rehan and his daughter (the owner of a cement factory) who were kidnapped on March 22, 2016 from DHA Phase-VIII, he said.
All the three kidnappers Qasim, Bilal annd Usman were killed in encounter and they had demanded Rs 25 million ransom from the kidnapped, father and daughter, he added.
The Rangers DG Major General Bilal Akbar also briefed the meeting on the operation going on against the terrorists in the city. He added that there was close coordination among all the agencies and they all are operating in the national interest. He said that he had solid data of the criminals working for RAW and other terrorists in Karachi and in the other parts of the province.
The agencies pointed that operation against terrorists have been launched in Ranjapur, therefore, they could come down to the katcha area of Sindh province. They suggested to seal the borders through necessary measures.
On this, the Sindh CM directed that Chief Secretary and IGP to coordinate with Punjab and share necessary information with each other. It was also pointed out that 2.8 million alien are living in Karachi and in some other areas of the province.
The Afghanis are being repatriated as per policy of the federal government and as far as the illegal immigrants are concerned the meeting decided to launch crackdown against them. The Sindh CM directed the chief secretary to facilitate the IDPs of operation Zarb-e-Azb for repatriation.
Pakistan Army has started their resettlement in their respective areas in North and South Waziristan and Bajur, he said.
