Criminals’ presence
Sir, I am a resident of Qasim Gabol Goth, near Safoora Chowk, Scheme 33. We built our houses in this goth with our hard-earned money. Various ethnic communities have been living here peacefully.
However, recently we have been seeing a few people who are continuously loitering in our locality. Reportedly, these individuals belong to a ‘banned’ organisation with alleged connections to a political party. They have weapons and apparently want to extort money from here in the name of our ‘protection’ and occupy empty houses and vacant plots in the goth.
The other day there was a clash between this group and another group belonging to the land mafia and heavy fire was exchanged. Many were hurt but fortunately there were no casualties.
The atmosphere here is tense and at any time a serious law and order situation can develop. We don’t want any terrorists or militant wing of any party in this area and request an immediate operation by the Rangers. We have learned that a few weeks ago the paramilitaries carried out an operation in a nearby locality with positive results.
NAME WITHHELD Karachi
Construction of bridge Sir, Mr Asif Ali Zardari has earned the gratitude of the people working and residing near Bilawal House by reportedly ordering the clearance of blockages around his family home in Clifton. The president should show equal grace by allowing the construction of the road bridge across Sharea Faisal near Hotel Mehran to reduce serious delays and traffic congestion on the intersection.
The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad and former city nazim Mustafa Kamal many years ago but work was stalled apparently on orders of the president.
ANWAR ABBAS PECHS
Garbage dumps
Sir, The residents of Garden East, especially Patel Para, face major problems due to the indiscriminate dumping of garbage throughout the locality.
There was a time when this area had enough space for proper garbage containers. But today the area is overwhelmed with buildings and vehicles. These encroachments have gradually swallowed up land where garbage containers were placed. This has resulted in garbage dumps throughout the locality as well as open sewerage drains all over the area. People cannot even open their windows in this hot, suffocating season anymore because of the stench of garbage, burning of garbage and foul odours emanating from open manholes, not to mention the army of mosquitoes.
The civic authorities have neglected the problem. They assume people do not have any problems because they do not lodge any formal complaints. Therefore, I would like to bring to the notice of the authorities the serious need to clean the area of informal garbage dumps. This is important for the health and well-being of the people.
FARHAN JUMANI Via email
Hazards on National Highway
Sir, Rainfall a few weeks ago left the patch of the National Highway near Pakistan Steel Mill and Faizi CNG pump in a horrible state, with deep ditches. These days the situation is very alarming as this road contains approximately three-feet-deep ditches, especially in front of the said pump.
This is a very busy road and daily a large number of heavy vehicles including trailers, containers, buses and trucks pass by carrying heavy goods. Whenever a heavy vehicle overturns it causes massive traffic jams at this point.
The good thing is that the affected area is hardly 1km long. It seems the real problem is an underlying sewerage line, which results in the road’s frequent ruination.
All these dangerous conditions make an ideal environment for overturning of huge vehicles passing through a highly curvy, uneven road. Seeing the emergency situation I appeal to the authorities concerned as well as the administration of the Steel Mill to take immediate notice of this situation and come up with a permanent solution.
IMRAN AHMED Gulshan-i-Hadid
Disclosing secrets
Sir, During a recent TV programme the Sindh police chief talked about an operation in Karachi. He discussed, almost threadbare, the modalities of this expected operation.
For example the police chief stated: “We have to reach where the arms/ammunition are kept.” Having three decades of experience in the police abroad and now retired, I was wondering why was it necessary to do this.
By disclosing that, among other things, the places where arms are hidden will be targeted, does it not send a signal to criminals to relocate the arsenal in advance? The Sohrab Goth operation was announced in advance to ensure that only two rifles, two pistols and a dozen boxes of bullets were recovered.
MUHAMMAD JAVED Karachi
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