Karachi target killers make startling revelations

ISLAMABAD: If the Sindh Rangers and police are to be believed, horrendous and bone-chilling tales are being told by several alleged target killers arrested by them in Karachi during the ongoing targeted campaign.

“What has come to the knowledge of the common man over the past one month through media outlets is just a tip of the iceberg of the crime scene of Karachi,” a senior official, who is privy to the interrogations being conducted by seasoned officers, told The News.

He said that there is hardly a single leading target killer among those netted so far, who exterminated just one person. “Every apprehended key figure has confessed to having gunned down several people on the orders of his political bosses.”

The official said almost all the dreaded killers, taken into custody during the continuing drive, were engaged in this “horrifying business” for many years with the police and other agencies stationed in Karachi being a silent spectator.

He said that a predominant majority of these murderers did not act on their own as they had nothing against their targets. They always perpetrated the heinous crime on the directions of their political masters, which were conveyed to them by one tier that received it from his superiors, he said.

As instructed by the federal government, the official said, the Rangers and Karachi police have stopped identifying the political parties with which the caught criminals are associated. This unnecessarily exasperates political parties, the official said.

He said that the initial information usually provided by the Rangers and police to the general public about the atrocious offences did not tell the whole story. The complete picture will emerge only when charge-sheets would be filed against such offenders in different Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs) of Sindh to begin their formal trial. It would certainly cause a lot of public scare and alarm, he believed.

“Our investigations show that there is not a single target killing of any political leader, worker or activist that was carried out by the assassins for their personal considerations in Karachi,” the official said, adding that the killers received commands from their political bosses and blindly implemented them as per the given time frame, leaving no trace behind. If ever a sign was tracked down, the man who did it was also eliminated.

Asked about unmasking the “political masters and bosses”, who were the real culprits for harbouring the criminals, the official said that they would be publicly mentioned in not very distant future. “Not only they will be named, but they will also be arrested for abetment and conspiracy. The prosecution will press for stringent punishment for them as well because they directed the commission of monstrous crimes.”

During earlier serious operations against criminals in Karachi, the official said, some hardened criminals were arrested but they were freed due to intervention of one political party or the other. This time, a sincere effort is that there is no repeat of such a worst practice, he said.

The official said that if a killer gets himself released because of the political influence of his master on whose orders he has taken the lives of people, he is tremendously emboldened and will accomplish his outrageous assignments without any fear.

“But if political influence is set aside and once such marksmen are imposed the severe punishment they qualify for under the law, there will be a visible difference in the crime scene of Karachi,” he said.

For many years, the official said, there were not many political players, who had raised armies of killers to take on their opponents in the Sindh capital, but as the time passed different parties and groups, which were victim of the perennial offensive, also brought up their own bands of assassins not only to retaliate but also to outsmart their adversaries.

“This scenario made the mega city exceedingly ghastly and grisly,” the official said. “Before the launch of the present campaign, political parties were freely targeting their opponents, engaged in turf war on preserving or expanding their political influence and keeping a firm control over collection of billions as extortion money from different areas of the Sindh capital.”

He felt that the targeted operation has made a visible difference on the crime scene of Karachi, but still a lot remained to be done. What is before everybody is the result of a mere beginning. Unless the target killers, extortionists, kidnappers for ransom and mafias and their patrons are eliminated as prescribed by the law, there will not be a permanent solution to the problem, he said.

The official said that the sincerity and genuineness that the federal and Sindh governments have so far shown to curb crimes in Karachi has to be persisted to restore endurable peace. If they faltered like it happened for umpteen times in the past, the toughened criminals and their bosses would be encouraged, and the poor policemen, who are now wholeheartedly preoccupied with the targeted drive would become victim of the assassins’ bullets once again, he said. “This must not be allowed to happen.”