KARACHI: Inspector General Sindh Police (IG) Mushtaq Shah expressed satisfaction over police performance in Lyari operation and admitted that security forces had no clue that they would face serious resistance from the criminals, Geo News reported Saturday.
After attending the funeral of police officer Ghulam Sibtain at Garden Headquarters, who was martyred during Friday battle in Lyari, IG Sindh told the reporters that security forces knew about the difficulties of conducting operation in Lyari but had no idea that the resistance could be so severe.
Miscreants used latest weaponry against them that included rocket launchers and steel bullets. It felt as if it was a battle at the border, Mushtaq Shah told.
IG Sindh told that gangsters have been given two days to surrender while a new policy is being devised to make progress after the operation would resume after 48 hours.
He told that the operation has not been halted on anyone’s request and it would resume after 48 hours with fresh strategies in order to achieve targets.
Life in Lyari was troubled when security forces launched an operation against criminal elements in the area more than a week ago, but now the local residents have breathed a sigh of relief after the operation was halted for 48 hours.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik had announced on Friday that soon a major operation would be launched against criminals in Lyari, hours after the Sindh police chief Mushtaq Shah said the weeklong operation in the area was being halted for two days.
IG Shah said that the Sindh government had decided to provide facilities to the public, as the operation had left the people of Lyari facing extreme food shortages.