Police fiasco at Kati Pahari

KARACHI: Gangs of gunmen armed to the teeth abetted by a hopping-mad mob hemmed in the security personnel conducting a search/arrest operation in the Kati Pahari area of Orangi Town and held them hostage until the intervention of higher authorities, Geo News reported.

Earlier, Rangers and police, laid siege to a seminary/mosque in the Katti Kahari area after they received a lead on the militants involved in a recent hand grenade attack as well as a key Taliban commander Mulla Akbar suspected to be hiding there.

Even before they have launched the search operation, unknown assailants perched at vantage points opened fire at them. Under attack, the police did return fire but were soon put at a disadvantage by a raging mob of local residents, which kept the police at bay by storming them with stones.

Hulking mobsters stampeded at least 22 police including an SHO into a mosque and held them hostage there for near two hours. They got new leases on their lives after higher authorities brokered a truce with the aggressors.

Despite this early debacle operaion is still underway.