KARACHI: A police team on Sunday faced resistance in Singhu Lane when they tried to raid a gambling den in the area.

Earlier reports had suggested that residents attacked men belonging to a gang of Lyari after they threw a grenade at a home in Singhu Lane. However, Lyari SP Aftab Nizamani denied the reports and said it was a police party that “faced resistance after trying to search a gambling den and a home where gutka was being prepared”. Adding, he said: “Sunday is the only free day when we can enter these specific areas where gambling dens operate.” He said besides the gambling dens, which largely belong to a gangster named Taj Mohammad, alias Taju, there were homes where women made gutka or what was locally known as mawa.

Boys aged 13 to 14 are also used by gangsters to work for them for Rs100 to Rs500 a day. The trend started shortly after the Rangers-led operation began in September 2013 in which some known gangsters and their aides were arrested by the paramilitary forces.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2016