KARACHI: The Lyari operation has entered its final stage and it may conclude on Friday, Sindh IG Mushtaq Shah told a press conference at the central police office on Thursday.

Police had some successes during the operation, he said, adding that pickets had been set up in strife-torn Afshani Gali and police had entered Singu Lane that was previously a ‘no-go area’.

The police chief said that law enforcers were likely to achieve their targets within the next 24 hours.

However, he made it clear that the police team, headed by CID SSP Mohammad Aslam, would continue the operation against terrorists till the achievement of all targets.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah while speaking at a press conference on Wednesday night had avoided giving a timeframe saying that rooting out criminal elements was a time-consuming task.

Replying to a question, the police chief said that Taliban along with other criminal elements were also engaged in pitched battles against the law enforcers.

A total of five policemen had been killed and 10 others wounded since the launch of the operation in Lyari, while only on Wednesday, four gangsters had been gunned down, he added.

He said all the injured police officers and jawans were being provided complete medical treatment and no negligence would be tolerated in this regard.

The police chief said that a sizeable number of people had fled their homes in Lyari to safer places in the city mainly due to these criminal gangs, who he said were responsible for the killing of innocent people in Lyari.

Asked that why police were concentrating only on two areas of Lyari, the police chief said that gangsters had their head office in Afshani Gali.

In reply to another question, he said that keeping in view the stiff resistance police had faced, it seemed that Taliban and anti-state elements had been operating in Lyari.

Responding to yet another question, he said the police would continue their action till the arrest of all gangsters whose head money had been announced by the provincial government.

Relief goods

Mr Shah said that arrangements had been made to provide food, water and electricity to the residents of Singu Lane. He announced that police would provide complete protection to government officials and social welfare organisation representatives who wanted to provide relief goods to the affected people in Lyari.

Additional IG Akhtar Hussain Gorchani and other senior police officials were also present on the occasion.