He was talking to the media persons after holding a detailed meeting with the DG Rangers Pakistan (Sindh) here on Monday. “Action will be taken without any discrimination against any political party whether they may belong to PPP, MQM, ANP or Sunni Tehreek,” he said while responding to various queries.
It is our priority to provide protection to the life and property of the masses, he added.
In a related development, it is learnt the government has decided in principle to declare ‘red zones’ the areas affected by targeted killing and intensify deployment of police and Rangers in those areas to start across-the-board targeted action against criminals from Monday midnight.
Meanwhile, 11 criminals involved in the recent spree of target killings, but hiding in the protection of different political parties, have been arrested in the city. This was announced after a high-level law and order meeting held Monday at the Sindh Chief Minister’s House. The meeting particularly discussed steps to curb targeted killings in the city. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister Rehman Malik jointly presided over the meeting.
The meeting was informed that 11 criminals have been arrested, allegedly members of various political parties and groups. The interior minister said that some of the arrested criminals are serial killers who confessed to killing more than 100 people in the city.
The targeted action would be across-the-board and irrespective of any criminals’ taking cover of any political party, he said, adding black sheep are in all political parties, so action would be taken against all. Malik said that the meeting was informed that out of 154 killings since March 10, 2011, only 44 casualties were from target killings, but the media exaggerated the number of targeted killings to glorify their stories.
Even, those who killed either in personal enmity, property controversy or other issue were named as victim of target killing, he added. He urged the media to report factual happenings and should reject baseless stories, advising to verify the facts as IG Police has been directed to inform the media a factual position of the incidents.
It was further said that the verification of the arrested criminals is in process and their details will be released soon.
Sharing details of the meeting, the interior minister and the chief minister said the Rangers DG and police have been instructed to take action based on proper intelligence. All intelligence agencies have been directed to furnish authenticated information well in time, they added. To a question about Peoples Amn Committee, Rehman Malik said that some elements of Peoples Amn Committee are criminal, while action has been taken against them and should be taken further. He said that certain criminals arrested for heinous crime manage to go free due to weaknesses in the system, so there is a need to bring changes in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which already has been suggested by all the provinces too.
To a question about interference in the affairs of Sindh government, the interior minister rejected the notion, saying that he has come here on instructions from the prime minister. He said, “I am neither de-facto Chief Minister of Sindh nor a viceroy of the Centre for Sindh affairs”.
Meanwhile, another meeting of ministerial committee was also held at the CM House, which was jointly chaired by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The meeting was also attended by Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani, Sindh Health Minister Dr. Sagheer Ahmed and Sindh Minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon.
The meeting discussed various issues and decided to raise the number of members in the committee headed by Agha Siraj Durrani from four to six - - three members each from the Pakistan Peoples Party and the MQM.
The committee will discuss the law and order situation every week and forward its recommendation to the chief minister for necessary action and final orders.
It was also decided that a task force headed by a DIG would be formed to assist the committee and shifting the information to be consolidated. Recommendations will be sent to the IG Sindh who will furnish the information to the chief minister for action.
Sharing details of the meeting, the interior minister and the chief minister said the Rangers DG and police have been instructed to take action based on proper intelligence. All intelligence agencies have been directed to furnish authenticated information well in time, they added. To a question about Peoples Amn Committee, Rehman Malik said that some elements of Peoples Amn Committee are criminal, while action has been taken against them and should be taken further. He said that certain criminals arrested for heinous crime manage to go free due to weaknesses in the system, so there is a need to bring changes in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which already has been suggested by all the provinces too.
To a question about interference in the affairs of Sindh government, the interior minister rejected the notion, saying that he has come here on instructions from the prime minister. He said, “I am neither de-facto Chief Minister of Sindh nor a viceroy of the Centre for Sindh affairs”.
Meanwhile, another meeting of ministerial committee was also held at the CM House, which was jointly chaired by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The meeting was also attended by Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani, Sindh Health Minister Dr. Sagheer Ahmed and Sindh Minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon.
The meeting discussed various issues and decided to raise the number of members in the committee headed by Agha Siraj Durrani from four to six - - three members each from the Pakistan Peoples Party and the MQM.
The committee will discuss the law and order situation every week and forward its recommendation to the chief minister for necessary action and final orders.
It was also decided that a task force headed by a DIG would be formed to assist the committee and shifting the information to be consolidated. Recommendations will be sent to the IG Sindh who will furnish the information to the chief minister for action.
