97 held in Karachi during police crackdown

Pakistan police have arrested 97 suspected criminals, some of them accused of murder, kidnapping and robberies, and terrorists in the port city of Karachi since Wednesday, an official statement said Thursday.

The arrests were made as police conducted 73 separate raids in different areas of the city for the suspects, Xinhua reported.

Police had to face resistance at a number of places when alleged criminals opened fire at the police during the raid but no one was injured, it said.

Police also recovered 26 weapons of different calibers from the arrested people.

Over 3,000 suspects have been arrested so far in the ongoing targeted operation launched Sep 6 in the violence-hit Karachi against terrorists, target killers, kidnappers and extortionists, media reports said.

Rangers and police also recovered heavy cache of weapons including automatic guns, pistols, hand grenades and homemade bombs from the detained people.

A special cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the targeted operation to deal with the deteriorating situation in the business hub of the country.

Over 2,000 people were killed in different kinds of attacks in the city of over 20 million population during the first eight months of the current year.