KARACHI: Four shot dead, two wounded in Lyari: Police suspect gang-war
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Oct 1: Four persons believed to be associates of Rehman Dakait were killed by their rivals in the Chakiwara area of Lyari on Sunday night.
Police said that some five to six persons were reportedly consuming drugs at Dhobi Compound located in Sangu Lane when unidentified armed men alighted from a vehicle and opened a hail of bullets at them before fleeing.
Four persons died and two others were seriously wounded in the incident. Firing was so intense that it was heard in surrounding localities as well creating panic in the entire area.
Following the incident, people informed the police and Edhi Centre. Subsequently, the injured and the bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital. One of the injured identified as Siraj was taken to the operation theatre of the emergency ward. The other injured was identified as Shoaib, who was also said to be in serious condition. In the meantime, the four bodies were shifted to the morgue of civil hospital for post-mortem examination.
City Police Chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui told Dawn that initial information suggested they were members of criminal group and the incident was a result of in-fighting among the gang members of Rehman Dakait.
Quoting the area people, Lyari TPO said that the deceased were not locals. One of the injured, Siraj, had around 10 cases registered against him at the Chakiwara police station, he said.
Till filing of this report, the identity of bodies could not be established.
According to the police estimates, more than 300 people including policemen have been killed since 2003 when the gang war began. Official sources said that Rehman Dakait and Arshad Pappu were allegedly involved and wanted by the police in murders, drug peddling, taking forcible donations, kidnapping for ransom and other criminal activities.
The high command of the police taking notice of the killings in Lyari decided to launch a crackdown on the two criminal gangs in January 2004. A separate unit named Lyari Task Force was constituted in January 2005 with an aim to contain the rising incidents of crime there and eliminate the warring criminal gangs of Rehman Dakait and Arshad Pappu.
The LTF became active after the posting of SP Aslam Khan as its head in January 2005. The LTF on information raided the Rehman Dakait’s house in Hub along with the Rangers where a bloody encounter took place in which an inspector lost his life and several other policemen, including DSP Irfan Bahadur, were wounded.
Even some harsh critiques of SP Aslam Khan admit that during his tenure as head of the LTF, law and order situation in Lyari had considerably improved, target killing of the gang’s members had stopped with exception of petty police extortions, which had continued unabated.
However, the Lyari Task Force top brass was arrested in a murder case as they killed a man on mistaken identity of the notorious criminal Mashooq Brohi in July. Following the disclosure of mistaken identity, the LTF was disbanded by the IG Sindh but he restored it the very next day. Later, SP Aslam Khan, DSP Irfan Bahadur and other police officials were arrested. Since then, they have been languishing in jail while facing murder trial in a court.
