Karachi: Provincial Information minister Sharjeel Memon on Tuesday said that during the current calendar years 2,101 people were murdered in Karachi, of which 370 were reported as target killings to the police.
Addressing a press conference at the Sindh secretariat Memon said, that Karachi was a huge city and the types of murders were diversified. Of the total killings only 370 were rated as target killings.
“Every killing is not a target killing so we should be cautious to report the nature of the killing,” he told media.
Memon further said that a huge amount of weapons, firearms and explosive were found in the city and it was next to impossible to stop the killings unless the city got rid of the arms and ammunition.
During a roundup of the crime and terrorism scene in the city this year 2469 police encounters were carried in which 126 police official were killed.
During those incidents, 2929 criminal, extortionists and terrorist were arrested.
In the thousands of crackdowns and raids the police recovered some 203 kilogram of explosives from the terror groups, 82 missiles were also recovered with eight rocket launchers. The police also recovered 365 hand grenades during the year, he said.
He also disclosed that before Eid Ul Adha, the law enforcement agencies discovered an explosive laden vehicle. In the vehicle, parked outside a wedding hall, 100 kilograms of explosive was planted.
“We did not make it public at that time to avoid panic,” Memon explained.
Regarding extortions, the information minister said that 185 complaints were registered with the police and law enforcement agencies. Of those complaints 68 were resolved.
He said that during the year 993 groups and gangs were busted which were involved in terror, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and band robberies.
Memon believes outside forces were involved in the ongoing wave of killings, which would not dare to attack the country directly but backed the criminals to destabilise Karachi and thus the country.
