KARACHI: Although figures collected by independent organisations suggested that 47 people have been killed by robbers since January, a senior police officer on Monday claimed that, to date, a total of 33 persons were shot dead in incidents of street crime, as per data maintained by the law enforcement agency.

Special Investigation Unit (SIU) Chief SSP Mohammed Shoaib Memon said that out of them, 23 cases have been detected through the arrest of culprits involved in these heinous crimes, while 10 cases are under investigation.

He said this while speaking at a press conference at his office. The officer said the detection rate of street crime cases stood at 70 per cent. He mentioned that last year, none of the street criminals arrested by the SIU were granted bail by any court.

However, he did not agree with the questionnaire’s claim that 47 persons had been killed by the street criminals in the city during the past five months.

The SIU chief admitted that the lack of establishment of drug courts had ‘benefited’ suspects arrested in narcotics cases in terms of securing bail. However, he said the Sindh cabinet had recently taken up the matter and decided to establish drug courts for the trial of narcotics dealers.

SIU SSP rejects independent toll of 47 fatalities; claims 23 cases solved thus far

He recalled that following the Amir Mustafa murder case, the unit was assigned the task of cracking down on narcotics, particularly three types — ice, weed and cocaine.

SSP Memon said they had busted a gang involved in “smuggling” weed from California and more recently, another gang smuggling weed from Iran through Hub to the city was busted following the arrest of a drug dealer, Sajjad.

He said weed worth Rs12 million was recovered from his custody, while concerted efforts were underway to arrest the remaining members of the network. He maintained that the main dealer of weed from Iran is Hasnain Baloch.

SSP Memon also announced the arrest of two suspects who gunned down a citizen, Gulzar, over resistance during a robbery in Mominabad in June 2024, in which their accomplice was also killed by their firing.

Regarding the case of actor Sahir Hasan, he said no ‘relief’ was given to the accused in the chalan (charge sheet), but the accused was granted bail by a court due to the non-existence of drug courts.

He said they had nominated three accused in the Sahir case, including a bank manager, and efforts were underway to arrest them as they had gone into hiding.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2025