Karachi: Pakistan's Chief Justice has warned that the situation in Karachi was in danger of spinning "out of hand" after the Sindh Police chief admitted that many areas of the city have become "no go zones" with the death toll mounting to 306 in a month of gang wars and mayhem.
In an unprecedented sitting in Karachi to take suo motu notice of the violence in the city, a five-member bench of the Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry expressed dissatisfaction with the government's account of the gory happenings in the city.
The bench pulled up the authorities for lacking vision and analysis that were needed to make headway to check spiralling violence.
The Court wanted names of people employing vicious armed gangs who are waging a savage battle for supremacy in the Pakistan's commercial hub Karachi.
It has now directed that the country's main spy agency ISI and the military intelligence to file reports on the backdrop to the violence.
At the hearing, Sindh Police chief, Wajid Durrani, painted a grim picture of the law and order situation in the port city, saying that law-enforcement agencies cannot enter some violence-hit areas in Karachi, even though more than 32,000 policemen were deployed in 112 police stations.
Durrani told the court that more than one ethnic groups were involved in the violence, which has thrown life out of gear in the city of 18 million multi-ethnic populations.
Filing a report before the court as directed by the Court, Durrani blamed ethnic and sectarian tension for the unrest, adding that land grabbers and extortionists were adding fuel to the violence in the city.
The Supreme Court bench declined a Sindh government plea to keep the report classified saying that most of it was based on newspaper report and keeping it confidential was not important.
Giving details of the losses, Durrani, when asked by the chief justice, said that 17 bodies were found in bags of which throats of eight had been slit.
He said 78 vehicles were torched in 146 clashes between armed groups over a period of a month.
Durrani also said that police had rounded up 20 target killers.
The Court has now specifically asked the police chief to give names of those running violent armed gangs in the city and is to resume the hearing tomorrow.
PTI
First Published: Monday, August 29, 2011, 16:18