With no let-up in violence in the country's commercial hub, Pakistani security forces on Wednesday launched a massive search operation to flush out terrorists, armed gangsters and other anti-social elements from the worst-affected areas.
Calling it a 'surgical operation', heavily-armed paramilitary forces and police conducted house by house searches to roundup terrorists, target killers and kidnappers as the toll from the bloodletting in the city topped 100 lives, officials said.
The operation went underway as fresh firing cases were reported from the worst-affected Lyari area, injuring seven people who were rushed to hospital for treatment.
The security forces comprising the Rangers fanned out into the worst-hit Lyari, Orangi Town, Malir, Gulshin-e-Iqbal, Ahsan Abad, Saddar and some other parts of the city, which had witnessed spate of incidents of firing during the past week.
Though the paramilitary forces have started an operation, demands persisted from the city's Urdu speaking settlers Mohajirs and Pashtun speaking groups for deployment of the army to check the runaway violence.
The search operations came amidst a total shutdown in the metropolis with crossfire dominant Mutahida Qaumi Movement giving the call to protest the government's failure to cull violence. Police and hospital sources said 300 people were also killed in the city last month.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik also visited the troubled areas of Lyari and Kati Pahari and assured the villagers that the operations would be conducted in all areas where terrorists were present. TV footage showed armed paramilitary soldiers searching houses and apartments and arresting people by taking them away blindfolded and with their hands tied.
At places, particularly in Lyari area, people came out in big numbers to stage demonstration to stop search operations. TV channels also beamed pictures of people firing in the air to stall security-men.
