39 dead in Karachi fire

A blaze in the slums of the Pakistani port city of Karachi left at least 39 people dead, local broadcaster GEO TV reported early Friday.

There were numerous women and children among the dead.

Sleeping residents were reportedly engulfed by fire, which spread so rapidly that many victims were unable to even flee the shacks in which they live. Some of the dead were burned beyond recognition.

Survivors including some with severe burns were brought to nearby hospitals.

Local reports said that the fire started when a power line fell onto the roof of a shanty.

Police arrest 4 tanker snatchers in 2 raids

In separate raids, the Gadap Town police arrested four men, including two alleged Taliban financers in Karachi, who were involved in snatching tankers and dumpers, while recovering two oil tankers and three dumpers.

The Memon Goth police, Gadap City police and a car tracker company were in search for the oil tankers that were recently snatched by unidentified armed men within the jurisdiction of Gadap Town Police Station. One of the oil tankers was snatched from driver Ahsanullah at the Link Road on December 26, 2008. An FIR No 226/08 was registered on the complaint of the driver.

On Monday, the police received information that some people were unloading oil at a petrol pump in Gadap Town. The police reached the spot and arrested Ameer Khan and Ameer Islam. Both men hailing from Waziristan are alleged Taliban financers.

During initial interrogation, Khan and Islam confessed to snatching the vehicles, saying that they would call owners and ask them for money in order to release the trucks. Memon Goth DSP Choudhry Saifullah said, “We are in the initial stages of investigation and we cannot say anything about their affiliation with the Taliban.”

Meanwhile, Gadap Town police also recovered three loading dumpers and arrested two Hindu men, Kurwa and Basant. Saifullah said that Basant is a policeman and was posted to Khokhrapar Police Station. The recovered dumpers were snatched from different areas of the city including Surjani Town, Gadap City and Memon Goth.

Hand grenade found in Pak Colony area: Police recovered a hand grenade from Pak Colony on Monday. The grenade was found lying outside a shop at a scrap market in the Jahanabad area, within the jurisdiction of the Pak Colony Police Station.

Area residents discovered the grenade and called the police and the bomb disposal squad (BDS). The grenade could not have exploded because it was in a dysfunctional state, said SHO Aslam Hayat.

Manhole claims lives of 2 children

Two siblings drowned within the jurisdiction of Garden Police headquarters on Sunday, after they fell into an uncovered manhole. Seven-year-old Abdul Rahim and his four-year-old sister, Saniya, went out to play outside their home located at Block E, Officer Line, Police Headquarter during a power breakdown.

When the children did not return home, their father, Aftab Ahmed, an ASI in the police went out to look for them. Ahmed came across their slippers on the edge of an uncovered manhole and then recovered their bodies from the sewerage drain. The bodies of the children will be taken for burial to Pano Aqil, their hometown. staff report

Karachi police on killing spree

The way the City Police murdered four businessmen from Balochistan just hours before the advent of 2009 and the way police killed a youngster on the new year’s eve, it is obvious the police has secured license to kill innocent people and this government did not want to stop this unabated killing spree.

This is unfortunate state of affairs and the blame squarely rests on the shoulders of talkative Zulfikar Mirza, the right hand man of President Asif Ali Zardari. There is a genuine feeling among those who know Mirza who seldom cares for the worsening law and order in the metropolis. The new wave is dangerous as city police showed no remorse and claimed those who were killed they fired first at the police party then the police shot them dead in self defence. This is unbelievable and unacceptable.

Four young traders from Balochistan were shot dead by police in Karachi. Similarly a young man was killed on the New Year’s eve who was coming out of a fast food outlet.

The police repeated the similar story and claimed to recover three bottles of whisky from his car. If this is the basis to kill him then I am afraid every second minister in Sindh could become target of such wanton killing. In most of the cases they are religiously involved in fun and frolic and the chief minister seldom bothers to take strict action. Why they use so much booze whenever they manage to secure power is anybody’s guess.

Apart from this, six citizens lost their lives who were celebrating the New Year in style. This is unpardonable again. (The Nation)

Life returns to the capital market

Life returned to Karachi Stock Exchange and things took a bright look after suffering gloomy atmosphere at least for last six months.

The market saw shapes of green after being gripped of bearish sentiments after the removal of the cap from KSE-100 which gained 40.39points to close at 5,793.57points level while turnover surged by 179% from yesterday to 210.8m shares. In the overall market, bulls were finally able to thrash the bears by 166 to 71 from overall 241 scrips traded today.

In fact the driving force behind igniting spark in the market was the injection of Rs20 billion State Enterprise Fund as the National Bank of Pakistan, Employees Old age Benefits Institution (EOBI), State Life of Pakistan and a banking consortium transferred Rs5 billion each to the Fund being managed by National Investment Trust.

Resultantly, fresh life in the market was quite visible from the beaming faced of the depressed brokers and investors who suffered heavily due to financial turmoil and suspension of the trade at KSE at least for three months.

It looks that the major issues concerning the market are about to be addressed within a couple of days to bring a spark in the market following activation of Rs20 billion fund sparked new hope in the investors.

It may be noted that several brokerage houses and agencies either compelled to suspend their business operations and thousands of people attached to the stock market were rendered jobless as a result of the financial turmoil which consequently forced the regulators to suspend business operations at Karachi Stock Exchange for more than three months from October to recently ended December 2008.

Many people earning their bread and butter from stock exchange had to switch over to other professions and most of them have to sell their assets including houses, cars and other valuables to make up the losses incurred in the wake of financial melt down at the capital market.

The uncalled for suspension of business at the capital market due to fear of a thud fall sent a bad message of the economy abroad and provided an opportunity to the credit rating agencies to for downgrading of the sovereign rating of the country. However, the fear of heavy correction proved true which is reflected in the drop of the index to the level of 5,753 from over 15000 point level when the financial crisis hit the economy.

Meanwhile NIT is quite ready to launch the Rs.20 billion NIT-State Enterprise Fund without losing any time as NIT has completed all necessary legal work which includes signing of the agreement with the financing institutions and the approval of Guarantees of the government of Pakistan.

The legal work which entailed a lot details and paper work including the registration, approval of the Fund, Financing Agreements, Guarantees etc all have been accomplished.

The fund can only invest in 8 eligible stocks which are identified as OGDC, PSO, PPL, SNGPL, SSGC, KAPCO, and NBP AND PTCL.

According to NIT, the Fund is intended to sell units to the non-resident Pakistanis after the initial operation and after the market stabilization. The stocks mainly related to strong state owned organizations would perform well and provide necessary security to the financers of the fund and send strong signals to the market which is overly depressed at present. Returning to day’s business, the investors took fresh positions in major blue chips items like OGDC, PTCL, UBL, DGKC and NBP which also were the volume leaders today.



Amanullah Khan

Karachi—Life returned to Karachi Stock Exchange and things took a bright look after suffering gloomy atmosphere at least for last six months.

The market saw shapes of green after being gripped of bearish sentiments after the removal of the cap from KSE-100 which gained 40.39points to close at 5,793.57points level while turnover surged by 179% from yesterday to 210.8m shares. In the overall market, bulls were finally able to thrash the bears by 166 to 71 from overall 241 scrips traded today.

In fact the driving force behind igniting spark in the market was the injection of Rs20 billion State Enterprise Fund as the National Bank of Pakistan, Employees Old age Benefits Institution (EOBI), State Life of Pakistan and a banking consortium transferred Rs5 billion each to the Fund being managed by National Investment Trust.

Resultantly, fresh life in the market was quite visible from the beaming faced of the depressed brokers and investors who suffered heavily due to financial turmoil and suspension of the trade at KSE at least for three months.

It looks that the major issues concerning the market are about to be addressed within a couple of days to bring a spark in the market following activation of Rs20 billion fund sparked new hope in the investors.

It may be noted that several brokerage houses and agencies either compelled to suspend their business operations and thousands of people attached to the stock market were rendered jobless as a result of the financial turmoil which consequently forced the regulators to suspend business operations at Karachi Stock Exchange for more than three months from October to recently ended December 2008.

Many people earning their bread and butter from stock exchange had to switch over to other professions and most of them have to sell their assets including houses, cars and other valuables to make up the losses incurred in the wake of financial melt down at the capital market.

The uncalled for suspension of business at the capital market due to fear of a thud fall sent a bad message of the economy abroad and provided an opportunity to the credit rating agencies to for downgrading of the sovereign rating of the country. However, the fear of heavy correction proved true which is reflected in the drop of the index to the level of 5,753 from over 15000 point level when the financial crisis hit the economy.

Meanwhile NIT is quite ready to launch the Rs.20 billion NIT-State Enterprise Fund without losing any time as NIT has completed all necessary legal work which includes signing of the agreement with the financing institutions and the approval of Guarantees of the government of Pakistan.

The legal work which entailed a lot details and paper work including the registration, approval of the Fund, Financing Agreements, Guarantees etc all have been accomplished.

The fund can only invest in 8 eligible stocks which are identified as OGDC, PSO, PPL, SNGPL, SSGC, KAPCO, and NBP AND PTCL.

According to NIT, the Fund is intended to sell units to the non-resident Pakistanis after the initial operation and after the market stabilization. The stocks mainly related to strong state owned organizations would perform well and provide necessary security to the financers of the fund and send strong signals to the market which is overly depressed at present. Returning to day’s business, the investors took fresh positions in major blue chips items like OGDC, PTCL, UBL, DGKC and NBP which also were the volume leaders today.

Karachi police reluctant to avail CDGK’s surveillance facility

Despite the offer by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal to the police and other law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) for availing the City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) Command and Control Centre (C&CC) facility for maintaining law and order in the city, these agencies have neither deputed any senior official at the C&CC nor have they contacted the CDGK so far to use the facility.

The city government had extended its surveillance to Nishtar Park and M.A. Jinnah Road a couple of days ago and on this occasion, Kamal had suggested the police and other LEAs to utilize this facility for monitoring activities in these areas during Muharram.

On the other hand, a senior Sindh police official denied the CDGK’s claims that they had turned down its request for using the C&CC. He said that they had been asked by the Sindh Home Department to avail the CDGK facility from 8th to 10th Muharram.

Through CDGK C&CC, both signal-free corridors (I&II), Nishtar Park, M.A. Jinnah Road and other important city roads could be monitored with surveillance cameras, CDGK officials said. They claimed that it was the same technology being used in the United States and other developed countries of the world for maintaining law and order, keeping an eye on anti-social elements at crowded places and identifying culprits involved in sabotage activities.

It is worth mentioning here that the culprits involved in the Nishtar Park carnage a couple of years ago could not be identified after it was learnt that surveillance cameras of the police were not functioning properly at the time of the blast.

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5 kids hurt in Karachi road accident

Five children have been injured when a school van collided with a car in Karachi on Thursday.According to sources, a school van collided with a car due to over speeding in North Nazimabad Block L area.

Five children aged between five to seven years sustained injuries in the accident. The injured are being treated in nearby hospitals.

Sindh police bust terrorist network

Police, in a pre-Muharram operation, have arrested a group of 5 terrorists who were planning to carry out terror activities during Muharram-ul-Haram.

Addressing a press conference here, Inspector General of Police Sindh, Sultan Babar Salahuddin Khattak said 37 terrorists involved in various crimes were arrested during 2008.

He informed that suicide jackets have also been recovered from the arrested terrorists.

He said that as a result of measures taken by the police, the crime graph has dropped considerably. The IGP gave journalists comparative figures of crimes of the last six months.

He said that foolproof security arrangements have been made during Muharram-ul-Haram.

Police arrest man accused of killing grandmother

By Jamil Khan

KARACHI: The police officials of Ibrahim Haideri have arrested a convict who allegedly disappeared after killing his 65-year old maternal grandmother at her house.

According to the police officials, a 65-year old woman identified as Sairah was killed by a dagger commonly used for chopping fish. Her body was found in her house located at Ali Akbar Shah Goth.

The police started an investigation on the directives of Bin Qasim SSP Abdullah Sheikh and found that the last two people who were seen in the deceased’s house were her grandson Ismail and his friend Sultan. Sultan, was a resident of Zaman Town, and depended on the pocket money that his grandmother occasionally gave him. Sairah was killed because she refused to give Sultan, who was unemployed, any money, which aggravated him. Sultan’s accomplice managed to escape but the police hope that they will catch him soon.

Gang arrested: Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) on a tip off arrested a gang of 11 criminals involved in a number of cases including robberies and kidnapping.

The officials led by DSP Shakeel Awan, raided a safe house located in the Korangi Industrial area on Monday and arrested Ustad Afzal and his accomplices Umer Hayat, Fazal Saeed, Muhammad Shahid, Alam Sher, Saifullah, Misbahuddin, Muhammad Khan, Noor Ali, Gul Muneer and Saleem along with eight pistols, one rifle and one repeater gun.

The police officials said that the ringleader was arrested in 1989 after murdering a Quaidabad Traffic Police Sub-Inspector Nazar Hussain and awarded a death sentence. Later, the sentence was converted into life sentence and the culprit was released from jail in 2004. After serving a fifteen year sentence, he was set free and he formed a gang. The police registered a case and started an investigation.

Child injured: Aerial firing at a wedding ceremony injured a four-year old girl. According to the hospital sources, Malika, four, daughter of Shiraz was injured by a bullet during a wedding ceremony being held in North Nazimabad No 4. It is also mentioned that the area police have yet to take stern action against the miscreants who were openly firing during the wedding ceremony.

Mobile market looted: Over one and half dozen shopkeepers in Orangi Town No 5 lost valuable items including mobile phones, scratch cards and SIMs worth Rs 15 million after a late night robbery on Sunday.

The aggravated shopkeepers staged a demonstration against the lack of security and stopped traffic in the area for a while.

Police sources told Daily Times that robbers using iron-jacks damaged the shutters of 17 shops in the Adnan Mobile Mall located in Orangi No 5 and robbed a large number of cell phones, scratch cards, SIM cards and other related accessories worth Rs 15 million. The shopkeepers found out about the robbery early morning on Monday when they reached the mall and found that their shops had been broken into and all the outlets were empty.

The police, on the behalf of market owner Haji Aslam, registered an FIR No. 419/2008 against unknown robbers and started an investigation on the matter. (Daily Times)