LAHORE, Nov 11: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Ameer (chief) Syed Munawar Hasan has expressed deep concern over the surge in target killings in Karachi, alleging that the rulers are protecting the killers, extortionists and the drug mafia.

In a press statement on Sunday, Mr Hasan said that usually over a dozen of people were being gunned down in Karachi every day as the government had no writ in the port city. Target killers were doing their job freely and then disappeared from the scene as if they never existed.

It was unfortunate that the government had issued arms licenses to murderers, target killers and criminals because of its vested interests, he added.

He said the administration and the agencies were unable to apprehend the killers because they enjoyed the protection of the people in power. He said Interior Minister Rehman Malik would release the news of arrest of one or two killers in the past but no body knew their fate. He said their patrons got them freed from the clutches of law. Mr Hasan said that recently the Supreme Court had taken note of the release of 35 major target killers on parole and ordered their re-arrest, but the rulers immediately whisked them out of the country. — inp