Police arrest 44 in week-long crackdown, seize weapons and narcotics

KARACHI: Police arrested 44 suspects during a week of targeted operations and recovered illegal weapons along with narcotics, gutka and liquor, according to details released on Saturday.

The operations were carried out from June 22 to June 28 against suspected criminals, drug peddlers, gutka suppliers and absconders. Of those taken into custody, four were arrested in connection with criminal activity, 20 on drug-related charges, two for theft, one for motorcycle lifting, 14 for selling gutka or mainpuri, and three for other offences.

Police said the seizures included two pistols with bullets, one carbon and four cartridges. They also recovered 1,390 sachets of mainpuri, 1,800 sachets of gutka, and 1,312 kilogrammes of raw material used for mainpuri.

In anti-narcotics operations, police also confiscated 25 liquor bottles, 28 litres of illicit liquor, 191 grams of ice, and 3.165kg of charas. The action formed part of an ongoing campaign targeting street crime, drug distribution and the supply of banned chewing substances.