No significant decline in kidnappings seen in Karachi in 2018
KARACHI: As many as 38 persons were kidnapped for ransom in Sindh in 2018, according to a crime data report issued by the provincial police on Monday.
In the year 2017, a total of 46 persons had been kidnapped for ransom in different districts of Sindh.
The police report revealed that in 2017 only three incidents of terrorism had been reported in the province while in 2018 four terrorism incidents took place.
In 2017, a total of 23 people fell victim to targeted killing while in 2018 year only nine people were murdered in targeted attacks.
In the year 2017 as many as 1,520 people were murdered on account of various reasons across the Sindh province while in 2018, a total of 1,298 people were killed.
Lyari gangster Ghaffar Zikri and kidnapper Mashooq Nadwani were gunned down
As many as nine bank robbery incidents took place in the year 2017 while in 2018 only three bank robberies took place in the province.
1,182 ‘encounters’
The Sindh police data showed that a total of 1,182 ‘encounters’ took place in the year 2018 in which four alleged terrorists and 81 dacoits were killed in various parts of the province.
During these encounters, 661 ‘gangs’ were busted while 2,206 suspects were arrested red-handed.
In one of the encounters ‘notorious gangster’ of Lyari Ghaffar Zikri was gunned down.
One alleged ‘notorious’ kidnapper Mashooq Nadwani allegedly involved in kidnapping of a bureaucrat was killed in an encounter in the Benazirabad district.
Action against sub-nationalist groups
The counter terrorism department of police arrested a suspect, Nadir Bhangwar, in the Benazirabad district.
He was an “activist/mastermind of the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz/Sindh Republican Army which was involved in improvised explosive device blast in Nawabshah city”.
During the year 2018, the police also launched different campaigns in order to maintain law and order and arrested a total of 9,045 proclaimed offenders and 18,709 absconders while a huge quantity of drugs was also seized.
Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2019