Peace is still a distant dream for Karachiities despite the ongoing targeted operation launched in September last year against the criminals, gangsters and extortionists, as some 2404 people have fallen prey to the unabated violence in the city since the launch of the operation.
According to official data maintained by Sindh police, around 709 lost their lives in targeted killings over sectarian, ethnic, and political grounds, while some 1685 were killed since September 5, 2013 to July 8, 2014. However, when compared the figures with those of the corresponding period of last year, the death toll has significantly come down during the operation.
Around 4263 people were gunned down from October 27, 2012 to September 4, 2013. As many as 2432 people were gunned down in various incidents while around 1831 persons were shot dead in incidents of targeted killing from 27-10-2012 to 4-9-2013. According to the data, around 153 persons fell prey to killing in September 2013, 152 in October, 164 in November, and 160 people were killed in December 2013. In the same way, some 197 people lost their lives in January, 2014, 187 in February, 169 in March, 159 in April, 163 in May, 186 persons lost their lives in June and 35 were killed in first week of July.
Some 442 persons were gunned down in incidents of 'targeted killing' since January 2014. As many as 87 were targeted in January, 68 in February, 49 in March, 44 in April, 49 in May, some 121 people were targeted in June while 24 people were shot and killed in the first week of July. The incidents of targeting law enforcement agencies' officials is also increasing alarmingly, as some 137 policemen were killed in different incidents including target killings and bomb blasts since September 2013.
January and February were the worst months for law enforces, as in January some 43 police officials including SP Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Muhammad Aslam Khan were killed while in February some 19 cops lost their lives. Police Inspector Shafiq Tanoli was killed in a suicide blast in Old Sabzi Mandi area in the remits of PIB police station on April 24.