Punjab police conducted a grand operation against the dacoits of the Katcha area in Rojhan, Rajan Pur, and claimed a big success against the outlaws. According to the DPO, a total of 55 dacoits, affiliated with the Bannu and Fayyaz Dulani gang, surrendered before the police. The police destroyed several hideouts of Katcha area dacoits during the operation. Meanwhile, Sindh Rangers and police arrested 21 suspects allegedly involved in numerous criminal activities in a joint operation in the Katcha area in the province.
The law and order situation has significantly deteriorated and an unimaginable upsurge has been witnessed in crimes in the rural areas as well as in major population centers including Karachi,Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpinidi and Peshawar,etc. The urban centers are marred with the street crimes including armed robberies, cell phone snatchings, cases of extortion, kidnapping, and ransom, whereas the dacoit gangs have established their rule in Katcha area in upper Sindh, Rahim Yar Khan and RajanPur. The evils of dacoity and robbery have shaped into a long-held problems in rural Sindh and Southern Punjab where dacoit gangs equipped with the modern lethal weapons established their stronghold in ravine forests and difficult hilly terrains staging armed robberies in the rural areas and looting vehicles on gunpoint on the highways. These robbers are using social media and online fraud schemes to attract people for onward kidnapping and ransom. The recent surge in street crimes and kidnappings for ransom has plunged the people of Sindh and some parts in Punjab into a state of fear and uncertainty.
Unfortunately, the government’s previous strategies and measures against dacoity and armed gangs including the Army operation in 1990 could not produce long lasting results because of political backing and patronage these criminals enjoy from the tribal Sardars and feudals in rural Sindh, Balochistan and some districts in Southern Punjab adjoining both provinces. There had been a traditional consensus among the dacoits and the Police regarding peaceful coexistence and no intervention into each other domains, as Police patrols on the roads wherein dacoits raom in jungle and ravines. There is a need for a coordinated and full-fludge operation against the dacoit gangs in Sindh and certain districts in Punjab simultaneously so they could not elude to other regions/ provinces. Stern punishment to the criminals and their facilitators is a must, along with the establishment of check posts of rangers /paramilitary troops in dangerous Ketcha areas and Koh-e-Suleman to curb the evil of dacoity and violence of armed gangs permanently. Otherwise, this cancer is spreading relently every passing day.
