Ghaffar Zikri and his entry into Lyari's 'crime scene'
October 05, 2018
KARACHI: Ghaffar Zikri, an ominous sign of fear in Lyari, had entered the "crime scene" towards the start of the last decade and used to accompany Arshad, alias Pappu, a crucial character of the Lyari gang war, before the latter's arrest.
After Arshad, alias Pappu, was out of the picture, Zikri had to take up the mantle of the gang.
By the end of 2006 and the start of 2007, the gang war leader's name had become one that many feared in the world of crime. His added strength came on the back of political backing, and, suffice it to say, he was the uncrowned king of crime from Lyari to Jahanabad.
At this time, there was a war going on between the Zikri- and Rehman Dakait-led groups and it continued till the start of the Karachi operation. The infamous leader, during and before the operation, had set up his base camps in Lyari's Edo Lane, Zikri Para, and Hub, and carried out his gang operations from there.
The gang war, which was already in full swing by now, intensified in 2011 when the Lyari football stadium was bombed in an attack on Aziz Baloch and Baba Ladla.
Zikri originally hailed from Turbat, and he remained in hiding there for a long time, later on in his life. One of his brothers, Fatah, was shot dead last year by Rangers.
A Rangers personnel was martyred during a raid that was conducted some days back when authorities received a confidential tip that he was in the area. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies thereon persistently remained on his tail.
Zikri was named in more than a 100 serious criminal cases, including murder, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, police encounters, and gang war. On the other hand, the first information reports (FIRs) of multiple cases at the start of his criminal career were not registered.
Some of the murders for which he was named the suspect were carried out by his workers on his orders.
The government had set a price of Rs2.5 million on his head. Zikri, alongside Chota Zahid, was killed Thursday morning in a major encounter that had a heavy police and Rangers presence in and around Lyari.
