KARACHI: A top police officer on Sunday hinted that the recent knife attacks on several women, particularly in the Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal areas, might have been carried out by elements pursuing their own political agenda.
City Police Chief Mushtaq Mahar stated that the police investigators had got “significant clues” to the identity of the culprits involved in these attacks.
The senior officer added that the police would be in a better position to say anything for sure about the actual motive for the culprits when they would be arrested and properly investigated.
Almost two dozen knife attacks on women had taken place mostly in District East’s five police stations jurisdictions — Sharea Faisal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Aziz Bhatti and PIB Colony.
These knife attacks on women belonging to different backgrounds and age groups took place between September and October of 2017, which triggered fear and panic among residents, putting a question mark over the performance of law enforcers and effectiveness of the ongoing targeted operation in the metropolis.
The police authorities set up different investigation teams belonging to various specialised units, who were also assisted by intelligence agencies, to capture the culprits. Thus far four suspects had been apprehended, who according to reports had narrated the same story to their investigators.
Earlier in his interview with a TV channel, Karachi’s additional Inspector General (IG) Mushtaq Mahar pointed out that “three to four suspects” were involved in the series of knife attacks. And that there was a “political agenda” behind those attacks, said the city police chief without elaborating.
Also without naming anyone, he said the police played a vital role in ending those knife attacks on women by sending a ‘strong message’ to those involved in that crime.
