Karachi: At least 1,258 suspects were killed while another 128,000 were arrested in ongoing security operations by law enforcement agencies to bring criminals to book, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Wednesday.

Shah said this as he addressed a delegation from the Foreign Service Academy who had called on him as part of their diplomatic training.

He added that a security operation in Karachi had been executed in a fast-track manner under the auspices of the National Action Plan (NAP) and told the delegation that there had been no collateral damage despite its sheer scale and intensity with which the operation had been carried out.

The series of operations were launched in 2013 when targeted killings, kidnappings, extortion and street crimes spiked in the city, threatening to paralyse normal life in Karachi.

Both the police and paramilitary Rangers have been involved in the operations that aim to weed out religious, sectarian and political militancy.

Regarding the infiltration of terrorists into Sindh province, Shah said that they had mostly come through the province’s border with Balochistan, which also borders a restive Afghanistan further west.

He apprised the delegation that the Sindh and Punjab governments had drawn a border security plan so that the peace could be maintained on sustainable basis.

The chief minister also informed the delegation that his government had also initiated a safe city project for this mega city under which 10,000 CCTV cameras will be installed across the city.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI), who is on visit to this southern province, said that from now on he would devote his full focus to Sindh, adding that he was no longer tied down by the Panama Papers case that led to the removal of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Khan said that the state of disrepair evident on roads and infrastructure in Karachi was the result of massive corruption in the province.

He said that he would now focus on Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities and towns of Sindh, adding that he would regularly visit the province.

He also announced a public rally on November 5 in Obaro, a town in northern part of Sindh.