Karachi: 75 suspects arrested, torture cell recovered

mbasit December 15, 2011 0

KARACHI: At least 70 suspects were arrested and a torture cell was recovered during separate overnight search operation in different vicinities of the metropolis on Wednesday.

The search operation was carried out by the law enforcement agencies in Pak Colony, Bahadurabad and North Nazimabad from where the police apprehended about 70 suspects and shifted them to undisclosed locations.

According to sources, few of the detainees were later released after initial course of interrogation. The gangsters belonging to the notorious Arshad Pappu group of Lyari were also among the detainees.

The first operation was launched at Pak Colony’s different localities, including Jehanabad, Old Golimar, Bhutta Village and Ghulam Mohammad Village. A heavy contingent of police from seven different police stations of Liaquatabad Town participated in the operation while personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) also assisted police. Entire localities were cordoned off during the operation and no one was allowed to go in or out during the operation.

Nearly 50 suspects were taken into custody and shifted to different police stations, while police also claimed to have recovered a torture cell in Ghulam Mohammad Village. According to police officials, 15 suspects were later released after they were found uninvolved during initial course of interrogation while police have registered cases against 11 suspects.

They said that the operation was carried out over the presence of the gangsters involved in the unrest in Lyari on Tuesday in which at least four people, including a programme director of a private television channel, were killed.

District West DIG Imran Yaqoob Minhas said that the torture cell was being run on the upper floor of the ground plus one storey house while the gambling den was being run on the ground floor. He said the gangsters were running the den and the torture cell.

SHO Abdul Moid said that four gangsters belonging to the Arshad Pappu group were also among the detainees, who were taken into the custody from the gambling den and the torture cell. He said the bloodstain clothes, ropes, chairs, iron rods, chains and other tools used in torturing people were also found from the torture cell where people, after kidnapping, were being tortured.

Similarly, police also carried out a search operation in Dhoraji and Sherpao Colonies in Bahadurabad and detained about 15 suspects. They shifted them to the relevant police station, where the suspects were being questioned. Police officials said that the suspects were involved in criminal activities and narcotics business. The police also claimed to have seized weapons and narcotics from their possession.

In North Nazimabad, police detained at least eight suspects during search operation in Katchi Abadi in Brohi Goth. Police officials said that the suspects were involved in various criminal activities.

Meanwhile, police and Rangers conducted raids at various parts of the Lyari, including Ali Mohammad Mohalla, Nayabad, Nawalane and Daryabad, to arrest the culprits behind the disturbance of law and order situation in Lyari on Tuesday due to the clash between two armed groups but according to the sources, police and Rangers returned with empty hands.