SUKKUR: A strong contingent comprising officers and personnel drawn from the Dodapur and Panah Bhatti police stations of Jacobabad’s Garhi Khero taluka destroyed many hideouts of criminals in the riverine area of the district in the ongoing operation, SSP Syed Saleem Shah said on Friday.

The SSP, who is personally leading the operation, said that it was launched on Wednesday after the Ari community approached the police to report that a youth, Hubdad Ali Ari, was shot dead by the Dahani gang for refusing to pay Rs1m ‘protection money’.

“The operation is in full swing and around 20 suspected gangsters or their facilitators have already been rounded up,” the SSP said.

In their complaint, the bereaved family said that the Dahani gang had been threatening the community with dire consequences over construction of the City Foundation School by a non-governmental organisation in the Hassanabad locality of Garhi Khero. They said the gang had forcibly stopped the construction and demanded Rs1m protection money to allow completion of the work.

Major operation launched in Garhi Khero, 20 suspects held

They said that Hubdad Ari, who was active in getting the school built, was shot dead after the community did not come to the extortionists’ terms. He was sitting at a shop within the locality when armed gangsters opened fire on him, the family said.

Hours after the murder, a large number of Ari community members, along with the shocked and enraged bereaved family, staged a demonstration by placing the youth’s body in the middle of the Jacobabad-Garhi Khero link road to block it. The protesters also burned tyres and junk to disrupt flow of vehicular traffic on the nearby section of the main road.

An elderly member of the community told the media that the Ari community had already alerted the police when the gang was hurling serious threats at the NGO and the community. He said the police, however, failed to take any action against the gangsters.

Meanwhile, PPP MPA Mir Mumtaz Hussain Jakhrani has condemned Hubdar Ari’s murder and assured the bereaved family of his full support in taking the extortionists to task.

He urged Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon to issue necessary orders for the arrest of the killers and launch of an operation against the gang.

Jacobabad SSP Syed Saleem Shah on Friday said that following the IGP’s orders on Wednesday, a major operation was launched and it was intensified in the following days.

The SSP said a hunt for Amanullah alias Amanu Dahani, Bahar alias Baharu Dahani, Khanu Dahani, Akram Dahani and Sardar Dahani, and their facilitators was under way within the limits of the Dodapur and Panah Bhatti police stations.

More than 20 suspects had been rounded up and kept at different police stations for interrogation, he said.

The SSP said that a number of hideouts of the gang had been torched or destroyed during the ongoing operation.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024