KARACHI - Hundreds of women residents of Lyari on Saturday squatted in Baloch Chowk, Kalakot, in protest over the operation against gangsters and extortionists.
Led by Bilquees Bibi, the demonstrators announced to hold 7-hour hunger strike daily until the operation was done away with. The protesting women, who were chanting slogans against law-enforcement agencies, demanded the authorities to reopen Football House that had been playing a vital role in promoting cultural activities in Lyari.
Addressing the protesters, Bilquees alleged the LEAs of launching “a discriminatory search operation” in Lyari. She demanded that a similar operation should also be launched in other parts of the metropolis, if the one initiated in Lyari was not stopped.
She said “it was quite disgusting that on one hand, our loved ones were being killed, while on the other innocent people were being detained instead of real culprits.”
Bilquees maintained that such operations could not preserve peace in the city rather compound problems of the citizens. She further said that families of those detained would now be forced to pay to law enforcers for their release.
Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan said that final action was being taken against extortionists. He said the trend of targeted killing was rising in the city and that two more lawyers were killed on Saturday.
Following the deployment of police and rangers personnel, the situation in Lyari turned normal, after four-day violent protests in support of the banned People’s Amn Committee.
The protests against the operation halted all commercial and social activities during the last four days. With the deployment of LEAs, the PAC-backed protesters went into hiding.