Startling accounts of extortion, gang war emerge in 3 Sindh JIT reports

From Zeeshan Mirza

KARACHI: Nefarious Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch, Nisar Morai and Baldia Factory Fire incident’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) reports were made public by Sindh government on Monday, media reported.
According to details, the reports were release by Sindh’s ministry for interior and are currently available on their website, the website crashed soon after the reports were uploaded to the server.
The head honcho of Lyari Gang War, Uzair Baloch’s JIT report consists of 36 pages and names his family members and friends like Habib Jan, Habib Hassan, Saif Ali and Noor Muhammad among others.
According to the incriminating report, the criminal Uzair Baloch has confessed to killing 198 people on the basis of ethnicity and ongoing gang war activities and turf war. The JIT also says that Uzair Baloch used his influence to get seven people of his choosing jobs as Station House Officers (SHOs) in Sindh Police.
An individual by the name of Iqbal Bhatti was appointed DPO Lyari on the behest of Uzair Baloch while he also got Muhammad Raeesi appointed Lyari’s administrator who was wanted in cases pertaining to murders of multiple police and Rangers officials.
The report also says that despite fleeing to Dubai after law enforcement initially tried to arrest him he consistently sent back extortion money worth millions to Pakistan. Baloch bought various firearms from 2008 till 2013 whereas his properties and illegal wealth was also unearthed outside Pakistan.
The JIT report also mentions a 16 member group that worked directly under Baloch to ensure that the gang war operations ran smoothly. Baloch had been taken under arrest in 2006 from Thatta and was convicted on 7 different counts and spent 10 months in jail.
Baloch also confessed in the JIT that he helped his mentor ‘Taju’ escape from Pakistan to Dubai and then to Africa while also aiding and abetting an escape for ten more people working for him to Iran.
The JIT report further reads that the weapons used by Baloch and the Lyari gang was purchased from Lala Tawwakal and Saleem Pathan while fake documentation for all his accomplices was made from Iran.
A woman named Ayesha played a vital role in acquiring fake identifications for Lyari gangsters from Iran.
Baloch has said that he armed his companions after 2009 which was used to rob transportation trucks which were then sold off into the black market.
The JIT report has suggested that the case be dealt under the Army Act with charges of espionage, disparaging official secrets act and also advised new cases against the accused for weapons discovered from various areas in the city which were pointed out by Baloch.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in its conclusive report of the Baldia Town factory has revealed that the factory was torched by assailants over non-payment of Rs200 million as extortion money. The JIT, in its report, stated that the inferno incident was ‘a terrorism act’, rejecting it as an accident where more than 250 people had been burnt alive on September 11, 2012, in Karachi.
The report was signed by officers of law enforcement institutions who have contributed in the investigation of the factory fire case. The investigators revealed in the 36-page report that the factory had been torched by assailants over non-payment of Rs200 million as extortion money.
The findings showed the irresponsible role of the police, which seemed to be hiding the real characters involved in the mass killing of innocent people.
The JIT investigators further stated in the report that the prime characters in the terrorism incident of Baldia Town factory fire should be brought back from abroad and their names should be included in the Exit Control List (ECL) and their passports seized.
They also sought to provide protection to the witnesses of the incident. It emerged that Hammad Siddiqui and Rehman Bhola were directly involved in the terrorism incident which was previously dealt with in a non-professional manner.
The JIT members found that many elements attempted internally and externally to influence the investigation process in order to benefit the people behind the carnage. It is also exposed that a 1,000-yard bungalow had been purchased in Hyderabad city by using the extortion money by the assailants before the occurrence of the Baldia factory incident.