KARACHI: The provincial government on Friday assigned premier security agencies the task to comb out those who are spreading ‘venomous material’ on social media and ‘brainwashing’ youngsters against the state and its institutions.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah took the decision while presiding over the 27th Apex Committee meeting which was attended among others by Corps Commander Karachi Lt-Gen Muhammad Saeed, DG Rangers Major General Iftikhar Chaudhry as well as provincial ministers, police chief, heads of intelligence agencies and other officials.

The participants were given a briefing on the social media being used by terrorist outfits and criminal groups.

The names and identification of terrorist outfits and their social media accounts and handles were identified with number of followers and traffic on their accounts.

Apex Committee told to control such elements through agencies

The premier agencies were assigned the task to examine those who were spreading venomous material on social media, brainwashing youngsters against the state and its institutions and instigating them to kill innocent people as had been witnessed at Karachi University.

The chief minister said the authorities would have to control the anti-state and anti-social elements by using latest technology.

It was pointed out that during different protests, slogans were raised against the state and its institutions. The chief minister said that such an attitude was not acceptable and directed police and Rangers to monitor such elements and take action against them.

The Apex Committee, at the outset of the meeting, condemned killing of three Chinese teachers at Karachi University and vowed to bring the culprits to book. The meeting was told that teams had been constituted to unearth the mastermind.

The chief minister in consultation with the participants decided to further strengthen intelligence network and intelligence sharing so that operation could be conducted against terrorists.

The meeting also condemned the recent blast in the Saddar area and ordered its investigation.

787 street criminals listed

The meeting was informed that through an extensive exercise conducted in the criminal records of the criminals operating in the city, 787 persons had been identified as habitual offenders, 540 drug dealers and 244 land grabbers.

The lists of the criminals prepared by the agencies were shared with each other [police, Rangers and Corps headquarters] so that action as decided by the chief minister could be accelerated.

In the list names of criminals, their addresses, CNICs, mobile numbers, photos or exposure, age have been mentioned. It was pointed out that most of the street criminals, drug dealers or land grabbers might be used by the terrorists in their anti-state activities.

The meeting was told that in 2013, street crime cases were recorded at 1,506 per month, but the number increased to 3,939 per month in 2022.

The task of installation of trackers in motorcycles was assigned to Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon.

The meeting was told that around 400,000 unregistered Afghan nationals were living in Karachi, while 71,429 Afghans were holders of registration card. Illegal immigrants of other nationalities were in addition to them.

The federal government was asked to strengthen control along the border with Afghanistan.

It was pointed out that the use of synthetic drugs in schools was rising in Karachi and, therefore, a crackdown was ordered against drug peddlers.

A list of 1,714 narcotic peddlers was also prepared, the meeting was informed.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2022