KARACHI: Barrister Murtaza Wahab has urged the judiciary to immediately come to the rescue of the police and other law enforcement agencies (LEAs) that have been making their best possible efforts to battle the menace of street crime in Karachi.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, the Sindh chief minister’s law adviser said courts granting bail against minimal surety money to suspects arrested over street crime is frustrating the ongoing police efforts against lawlessness on the roads of the city.
He referred to the case of NED University of Engineering & Technology student Bilal Nasir, who had been killed while fighting off an armed robber near the campus in mid-December.He told the media that one of the suspects involved in the student’s murder, Nizamuddin, had been arrested, while the other suspect, Jumma Khan, had been killed in a police encounter.
He said police investigation revealed that Nizamuddin had earlier been arrested on October 8, while two FIRs had been registered against him under four different sections of the penal code.
He added that Nizamuddin had been arrested in October in an injured condition, but he was granted bail by a court in just a week against a surety of merely Rs50,000.
“It’s unfortunate that after the suspect was freed, he attempted to rob the NED student Bilal, and killed him,” the law adviser pointed out. He said police and other LEAs perform their duties and arrest the suspects, but they secure bail from courts.
He also said citizens and courts are under a solemn obligation to lend full support to police and other LEAs in their drive against the menacing problem of street crime that has been claiming people’s lives.
Wahab said that all the concerned quarters are required to work together to tackle the alarming issue of street crime incidents that have been on the rise across the city. He said police and other LEAs had earlier successfully overcome the problems of target killing and extortion in the city.
He admitted that in some of the instances there must be weaknesses on the part of the police and the prosecution while pursuing the cases against the suspects believed to be involved in street crime.
However, the law adviser pointed out, it is high time that all the concerned quarters demonstrate complete seriousness in terms of tackling this problem.He mentioned that the provincial government is very concerned about street crime, and has the resolve to overcome this issue just like it had tackled the problems of extortion and target killing in the urban parts of Sindh.
