Situated in the heart of the city off Sharea Faisal, a few yards from Chanesar Halt, the locality has been playing host to people from the upcountry and rural parts of the province for decades. But a number of inhabitants of this settlement were forced a few months ago to leave their homes when a gang of drug dealers made this shantytown the centre of their operation.
“In the last two months we have raided the area several times and arrested nearly 50 persons, mainly belonging to the Farooq Lala gang,” says Javed Akbar Riaz, SP of Jamshed Town. “We have cleared the area of criminals and now one can go without any fear into these parts of Chanesar Goth, which had been a restricted area for common people till the last month. The interrogation of the arrested men would definitely help us make further progress.”
A stroll through the streets of Chanesar Goth enables one to learn how organized crime may thrive within the city like a legitimate business. More than a dozen houses, which had nearly 180 gang members, are vacant after a recent police action. Some of them were acquired on rent while others were occupied forcibly after their owners were expelled from them by the gangsters.
Razia Begum is one of the many affected people who got back her home last week after the police raided the street to seize 500 kilograms of charas and arrest the two alleged members of the gang before cleansing the area of the gangsters. Her ill health does not allow her to remember exactly when she with her children was forced to leave the home, but she recalls that those were the days of a harsh winter.
“It was the last police action that allowed us to get back our home,” she says. “Like a majority of the locality we are poor people and can’t afford rented houses, but to save our lives we left our own homes and lived in a rented house elsewhere.”
She deplores that the area, which had been under control of the gangs for the last several years, took so long to attract the attention of law-enforcement agencies. Inhabitants of Chanesar Goth say they firmly believe that the gangs that freely operated in their colony till some time back were protected by the Mahmoodabad police.
“If we are allowed, we would first lodge our complaints against the area police,” says Manzoor Ahmed, an area resident. “The gangsters could never flourish if they were not allowed by the area police. The authorities took too long to move against these criminals.”The police authorities admit that theirs is a belated action, but claim that they had to put their house in order first, adding that things had started changing during the last two months.
“People in the area police had links with the gangsters and we had to make sure such policemen and officers were replaced with those having good reputation before we moved in,” says SP Riaz of Jamshed Town. He says the recent positive results are reflective of both administrative and operational reforms within the police department.
He admits that there was little realization among the police authorities about the gravity of lawlessness in Chanesar Goth, which emerged after recent actions and recovery of 500kg charas, the biggest-ever haul of the narcotic substance in the city.
“We have also seized arms, bullets and refined heroin, which suggests that the gang operating in Chanesar Goth is also involved in drug smuggling,” he says.
However, interaction with the locals caused this reporter to doubt that police had remained unaware of the modus operandi of the gangsters in the two lanes for such a long time.
The strong organisation of the gang can be seen when one enters these lanes, where close-circuit television cameras are installed. The two lanes have six cameras to monitor each and every movement of visiting people. Similarly, the only playground in Chanesar Goth till a few days ago had dozens of addicts, who consumed drugs under the floodlights without any fear.
“Nobody could go into the ground at night and it was not used for any kind of sporting activity even during the day,” says Mr Ahmed, an area resident. “Though there has been no movement of addicts for the last few days, the local boys are still reluctant to play there.”
His observation was echoed in the comments made by SP Riaz, who is confident that Chanesar Goth is no more a ‘haunted town’ for its residents. However, he believes, much more is needed to be done to fix the problem once and for all.
“We are trying our level’s best, within our means, to arrest the remaining members of the gang,” he says. “We suspect the gang leader is hiding somewhere in Balochistan and his arrest will complete our task.”
