RAIWIND: Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said that the government is depriving the residents of Lyari of their basic rights and necessities in the guise of an operation against criminal elements, DawnNews reported.

In a meeting in Raiwind on Saturday with Ghaus Ali Shah, the president of the PML-N’s Sindh division, Sharif said that at least 30 people had lost their lives so far in the police operation in Karachi’s Lyari town, while innocent residents were being forced to flee the area because of unavailability of food supplies and basic necessities.

Moreover, Sharif stressed that the operation was not in the national interest. The PML-N chief expressed complete solidarity with the plight of the troubled residents.

Sharif’s comments come after PML-N Sindh leader Raja Saeed met with the leader of the banned People’s Amn Committee Uzair Jan Baloch, and also expressed solidarity with the people of Lyari.

A strong contingent of police, the Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel had launched an operation against purported criminal elements in violence-ridden Lyari during the early hours of Friday (April 27) amid a high degree of tension caused by the April 26 killing of a key leader of the PPP’s local chapter in the area.

However, the law-enforcement agencies unexpectedly pulled out Friday evening from the strife-hit areas, temporarily suspending the operation for 48 hours.

“The miscreants have been given a chance for peace and they have been asked to surrender before deadline ends otherwise a strict action will be taken against them”, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said.