Karachi Lyari Operation (29th April, 2012): Indiscriminate crackdown on the warring gangsters in Lyari entered third-day on Sunday.
The residents of the affected area of Lyari have started moving out from the region towards safer places. At least 19 people including a SHO have been killed in two days of violence.
Meanwhile, parts of Lyari continue to remain volatile till today as intermittent firing incidents are still being reported.
The police in coordination with FC had launched an operation against the criminal elements of Lyari on Friday that resulted into violent clashes between the forces and the miscreants.
The police is receiving stiff resistance but has managed to establish some pickets on high-rises.
On Saturday the narrow lanes of Lyari remained a battlefield for the second consecutive day as fierce battles raged between gangsters and the police resulting in the loss of nine lives.
Local gangster groups, headed by Arshad Pappu and Ghaffar Zikri, with their 600 armed fighters, is aiding the police action against their rival Baba Ladla Group, or Peoples Amn Committee, which has been banned by the government.
Masked gangsters have been seen roaming with the police on Lyari’s streets where they fought gunbattles with gangsters.
The dead included the SHO of the Civil Lines police station. The pitched battles between heavily armed men and personnel of the Anti-Extremism Cell (AEC) have so far claimed 19 lives in two days.
The terrified residents of Lyari claimed that due to the operation, they had been confined to their homes and in the exchange of fire between the police and gangsters, bullets had entered their homes, forcing them to take shelter, and even sleep, on the floors of their houses.
