LAHORE: The Lahore police reportedly arrested the ringleader and seven members of the ‘Gang 102’ consisting of young students of various private colleges and schools of the provincial metropolis.

Identified as Fakhar Zaman, the ringleader of the gang, and some members were arrested from Karachi while others were taken into custody from Lahore.

A police official said the Gang 102, after its formation, started terrorising the rival student groups and later expanded scope of its criminal activities from their institutions to the roads and streets. Originally, there were 32 members of the gang and the ringleader and his accomplices were contacting more students to join it to take the number to 100.

The official said the gang members used to torture students outside their schools just to show their power and monopoly. Recently, the gang came to the limelight when some video clips of its members went viral showing them holding weapons, riding bikes and cars and roaming on the roads of Lahore. Later, the police got a written complaint against the Gang 102 when a young man alleged that the gangsters tortured him and his fellows at a snooker club.

Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana ordered the police to launch a crackdown on the gang and arrest all its members, including the ringleader.

Seven members of boys’ criminal gang also held

As the police initiated a crackdown and arrested a few members of the gang, the ringleader, Fakhar Zaman, managed to escape Karachi, the police official said. He added that the police on Friday arrested the ringleader and a few of his close fellows from Karachi and sent them behind the bars after lodging a case against them.

An earlier report, published some days back, the young gangsters used to travel in a double cabin and other luxury vehicles to show their ‘strength’. It had revealed that former members of the students’ unions had also joined the gang.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2023