Police reap big successes in Katcha operation

RAHIM YAR KHAN (INP): The anti-bandit operation in Katcha area of Rahim Yar Khan is continued on the eighth consecutive day Sunday.
According to the spokesperson for Punjab police, the law personnel reaped big successes in the operation. He said police have also made advances in Katcha area in Karachi.
He said that the police took control of four hideouts of dacoits and militants after torching them.
Sporadic incidents of trade of fire between the police and the hardened criminals using heavy artillery were reported in the Katcha area of Karachi.
The spokesman divulged that several bandits have been killed and arrested during the ongoing operation and police have recovered heavy smuggled artillery and incendiary material from the razed hideouts of the dacoits.
Police have destroyed the secret sanctuaries of Lathani gang and took control of the turf.
Police also took control of Basti Ghani Lathani after the operation.
The spokesperson said that the law enforcers established the writ of the state after clearing a no-go area stretching on thousands of acres of land.
Police have established its camps in the interior Katcha area of Karachi Bangli, Afzal Lathani and Noz Band.
The spokesperson said that the Katcha criminals are retreating to an island type riverine area in a jungle after the police destroyed, razed and torched dozens of militant hideouts.
On the other hand, a police operation in the Ghailpur area of Kashmore against the criminal elements is also underway.
Several armored personnel carriers (APCs) of police have reached the area.
Police have entered the houses of dacoits who have fled to Katcha area of River Sindh. However, an exchange of fire from both sides is going on.
On Saturday, dacoits attacked a police party in Kashmore bordering Ghotki and martyred two policemen and injured four others including an SHO.
The bandits and dacoits, who have long found refuge in the massive riverine area along the banks of the Indus with its inaccessible terrain and forest cover, held a show of strength of its own.
The federal cabinet on Saturday gave its assent for the deployment of Army troops in the ongoing anti-bandit operation in the Punjab riverine (katcha) area.
Punjab police launched a ‘grand operation’ against robbers and kidnappers in the katcha area of the Indus near the Sindh border on April 10.
Punjab Inspector Gene­ral of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar at a presser at the DPO office Lahore said an intelligence-based operation against the outlaws was already in progress for the last few months after kidnap-for-ransom cases increased this year.
“However, a grand operation has been launched in the early hours of Sunday (April 9) on the reports of a premiere intelligence agency of the country and the Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab,” he added.
The Katcha area which stretches up to Dehrki and Obaro in Sindh is over 100km long.