SUKKUR: Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon has said that army is training police for the massive operation against dacoits in the riverine areas of upper Sindh districts but involving the armed forces is the last option.

Speaking to the media in Kandhkot-Kashmore SSP’s office during his visit to the district on Saturday, IG Memon said the operation had effectively restricted gangs of dacoits to the riverine areas. He claimed that there had been a remarkable decrease in their criminal activities, including kidnapping for ransom, hostage-taking through honey trap, highway robberies and murders etc due to the ongoing operation. “Policemen have rendered great sacrifices in the operation and their morale is high … we will definitely wipe out all gangs and succeed in getting all hostages safely freed from their custody soon,” he said, adding that the police force was doing their job efficiently and working hard to make the operation successful.

The IGP said that Rangers personnel were fully supporting the police in the operation.

Claims 90pc objectives already achieved

Commenting on some recent criminal activities, the provincial police chief said that gangs were reacting to their losses and the achievements by police. However, he said, police would continue to mount pressure on them for the release of all hostages as soon as possible and to stop their criminal activities.

“We are effectively implementing the “national plan” chalked out to eliminate criminal gangs from all riverine areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab,” he said.

Under a jointly formulated strategy, complete peace in the entire region would be restored soon, he said, claiming that 90pc of the operation’s objectives had been achieved.

“A military operation is the last option,” IG Memon told a questioner, adding that Rangers were fully supporting the police and the army was training police officers and jawans in the fight against gangs.

He said that the Sindh Police had all required resources at its disposal. Intelligence-based targeted operations were being conducted in the operation areas and many hostages had already been rescued, he said.

Protest against police

Earlier, when the IG was escorted to the SSP Office, a large number of relatives of the scores of people held hostage by gangs held a demonstration outside.

They blocked the access to the SSP Office but the IG’s escort changed the route to lead him to the place via the Ghanta Ghar area.

IG Memon held a meeting with the SSP and other senior police officials of the district to discuss progress of the operation and the law and order in the area but avoided coming across the protesters.

He was briefed about the future strategy in the fight against the gangs operating in the Kandhkot-Kashmore area.

During the two-hour protest, the participants kept raising slogans for the safe release of, according to them, more than 30 men, women and children still held hostage by various gangs in the Kandhkot-Kashmore district alone.

The protesters, including Hafiz Nasrullah Channa, Ghulam Mustafa Mirani, Zareef Bijarani and other relatives of the hostages, deplore that the police had so far failed to recover more than 30 hostages who included two small boys, Azeem Manik and Farhan Soomro, Kausar Khoso, Sadaqat Hajano, Jai Deep Kumar, Mukhi Jagdesh Kumar, Moti Lal, Nand Lal, Ehsan Shaikh and three employees of a construction company Mazhar, Shafiq and Jamshed, engaged in the work on the Kandhkot-Ghotki bridge.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2023