ISLAMABAD: Rangers have arrested 7,950 suspects since the execution of National Action Plan (NAP) on September 5, 2013 among which 6,361 were handed over to police and 221 to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) with evidences.
The Rangers also recovered a large amount of weapons and ammunition from the arrested persons. “We have arrested 848 target killers who confessed more than 7,000 killings”, said an official of Pakistan Rangers, Col Qaiser.
While giving a detailed briefing to Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, he said that among the arrested persons, 1,236 were terrorists, 848 target killers, and 403 were kidnappers for ransom.
He informed that 5,518 were released without registering First Information Report (FIR) against them, 1,313 got bail whereas 188 were convicted.
The Rangers official further stated that as result of these operations, 80 percent terrorism was reduced in the country while 75 percent target killings were decreased. Besides that extortion, kidnapping for ransom and other crimes were also reduced to significant level, he said.
He informed that there are chances of re-grouping of terrorist groups and other heinous nature crimes if the operation is not continued further. The committee has also directed the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) to prepare a draft report on establishing a monitoring body on operation in Sindh and present it before the committee.
The Senate’s Committee Chairperson, Senator Nasreen Jalil, lauded the sacrifices of Rangers, police and law enforcement agencies for ensuring peace in the province and said that there should be a monitoring body which can monitor the operation in Sindh. The committee also directed to pass an anti-torture legislation to check custodial killings.
The committee members said that Pakistan has signed international convention against torture and the fundamental requirement is to enact legislation on it.
While giving briefing to the committee, a representative of Sindh Rangers informed the committee that under the national action plan, in 2013, they were assigned four major tasks including control on terrorism, target killings, kidnapping for ransom and extortion adding that Karachi, at that time, was ranked as the 6th most dangerous city of the world.
He informed that they were asked to destroy major terrorist groups, neutralise militant wings of political parties, check routine crimes and establish people’s confidence. The deputy investigation general (DIG), Investigation Punjab informed the committee that the situation of child abduction is not as much serious as portrayed by the media.
He said that 187 children were reported missing from January to June this year and 24 others in July but among them 163 returned to their homes themselves and 28 were recovered by police.
