A leader of the so-called Lyari-based Peoples Amn Committee, Baloch is implicated in dozens of murder and other criminal cases. He oversaw charities, but also allegedly ran drug and extortion rackets. He was a key leader of the Lyari gang war that left hundreds of people dead and turned that impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi into a veritable battleground. The story of Uzair Baloch seems right out of a Bollywood crime thriller.
His reported arrest from the outskirts of Karachi by the Rangers last week after his mysterious disappearance from Dubai where he was detained almost a year ago gives currency to all kinds of conspiracy theories. No one takes the Rangers’ version seriously. It seems quite plausible that he has been in the custody of the security agencies for the past several months. Then why the arrest announcement now? It gives an intriguing twist to the whole saga.
Unsurprisingly, the news of Uzair Baloch’s arrest has come as the noose around some top PPP leaders is being tightened. That gives some credence to the speculation that he may be used as an approver against them. Some reports suggest that he has already been talking.
What is most interesting, however, is that several joint investigation teams are being formed to question him on the 2007 Karsaz bomb attack targeting Benazir Bhutto’s welcome procession and also the murder of the former prime minister’s bodyguards following her assassination a few months later. Surely the scope of the investigation against Uzair Baloch is being extended beyond the already pending murder and other criminal charges against him.
It is important to expose Uzair Baloch’s political patrons.
The son of a transporter, Uzair Baloch’s rise to the crime scene was spectacular. He apparently joined one of the most notorious criminal gangs led by Rehman ‘Dakait’ after the murder of his father by a rival group. He became the leader of the gang after the death of Dakait in an alleged police encounter. That also brought him close to the PPP which had still retained some support in its erstwhile political stronghold of Lyari.
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