LAHORE: The law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) on Friday demolished eight hideouts of Ladi gang including its ringleader Khuda Bakhsh in the tribal area of the Dera Ghazi Khan district.

District Police Officer Omer Saeed Malik, the Rangers commander and others led the operation which was launched on Thursday on the order of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The operation had been necessitated after the video of brutal killing of two tribesmen who were said to be police informers went viral.

Following the refusal by DG Khan’s tribal chiefs to help arrest Ladi gang members, the forces took into custody its 11 facilitators while ringleader Khuda Bakhsh and his second key commander managed to flee. The facilitators were ‘arrested’ after the forces penetrated deep into the stronghold of Ladi gang, including Darra Safaido and Kashoba.

Teams arrest 11 facilitators in first phase of operation

The LEAs demolished and torched eight hideouts of the gangsters including ringleader Khuda Bakhsh alias Khuda Chakrani and Mosa Chakrani.

The Punjab police, the Border Military Police and the Rangers jointly conducted the operation involving 550 personnel and 80 vehicles including five APCs and six bullet-proof vehicles, four snipers and two drones. They demolished eight hideouts of the gangsters who, according to reports, had already fled. There were unconfirmed reports that Khuda Bakhsh and Mosa Chakrani had crossed the Punjab-Balochistan border and will take shelter in Musakhel. Mosa Chakrani is said to be the mastermind of Ladi gang and had planned armed attack on the police informers on Tuesday last and killed two of them. Some reports suggested that he used to prepare a plan of each criminal assault in DG Khan’s settled area.

In a related development, a high-level meeting held at the Multan Division commissioner office has unanimously recommended to the Punjab government to abolish the Border Military Police (BMP) and give access to the Punjab police in the 52 per cent of the DG Khan territory being manned by the BMP. It was also recommended that in the second phase, the 52pc territory housing tribes should be declared settled area in order to bring permanent solution to the decades-old insurgency of notorious robbers, an official privy to the development told Dawn.

He said the proposal was presented by Punjab Additional Chief (Home) Momin Ali Agha at the meeting which was attended by the additional chief secretary South Punjab, the Multan Division commissioner, the DG Khan regional police officer, a senior officer of Pakistan Army and others.

He said the LEAs first made an attempt to resolve the issue at the political level to engage the chiefs of the tribes and senior parliamentarians for the arrest of the Ladi gang members. The tribal chiefs were suggested to contact and take into confidence the Ladi gang elders to make them surrender before the LEAs.

For this purpose, the DG Khan parliamentarians including MPAs Sardar Mohsin Atta Khan Khosa and Mohyuddin Khosa were contacted. The meetings were called on Thursday at 11am and then at 5pm but they reportedly refused to attend both meetings.

The official said the LEAs later opted to use force to eliminate the gang. The forces set on fire eight residences of the gang, he said, adding the LEAs also got vacated almost 40 hills of Koh-e-Sulaiman.

The grandfather of Khuda Bakhsh and his 10 facilitators were also arrested. He said the facilitators were providing him financial support and mobile phone SIMs. He said the first phase of the operation completed on Friday.An officer said the combat operation needed precision and a foolproof strategy to meet the objectives.

Last year it was decided by the Punjab police and the BMP to establish 16 posts of the LEAs at the entry and exit points of tribal tehsil Takht Sulaiman on the boundary of settled area but the plan could not be materialised.

The 17-member Ladi gang has hideouts in hilly area of Tuman Khosa in the vicinity of Kashoba Border Military Police station and operates in areas in the jurisdiction of the Kot Mubarik police.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021