K arachi: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that police operation in Lyari has been halted, media reports say.
Media reports quote Malik as saying Friday that the area’s electricity supply will be restored by evening, while telephone lines were restored at around 6am in the morning.
“The police and Rangers have only surrounded the area, while the forces have been pulled out from Lyari,” he said.
The interior minister said that electricity transformers which were destroyed because of the shelling will be reinstalled in the area, adding that the water supply which was disrupted will also be reconnected.
He said the entire area cannot be kept hostage because of mere four-five people.
He said that justice will be done to Uzair Baloch – the head of the banned Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) and “Lyari’s most wanted” – and his accomplices. “If Uzair Baloch does not trust the police then he should surrender before the Rangers.”
“I came on the commands of President Asif Ali Zardari to make sure that the gangsters in Lyari do not try to take law in their hands. If they do so, we will continue to launch indiscriminate action against them which will not be half-hearted. We will chase them wherever they go.”
He said that peace will be restored in the area within the next four-five days.
Police has been involved in an operation to flush out gangsters from Lyari for the last seven days, facing tough resistance from the miscreants.
