Misunderstood by masses

Will the dacoits of Sindh ever surrender?

Sukkur: The story of dacoits in Sindhi is an old one. British researcher Richard Burton had stated that in the 19th  century, there were almost one thousand dacoits in Sindh. However, during the British era, there were independence movements across India, which resulted in the British declaring freedom fighters as dacoits.

During the colonial times the participants of the Hur movement were also declared as dacoits and the religious leader and minister, Bachuu Badshah was publically hanged in the city of Jhol. Similarly Rahim Hingoro was also declared as dacoit despite the fact Pir Pagaro Shah Mardan Shah had told Rahim Hingoro to turn himself in, but he refused and got arrested. While trying to escape from prison he got injured by electrocution from the electric fence of the prison wall. Later on he was hanged in jail.

Afterwards, Ghulam Hussain Wadhu and Mir Langho gained notoriety in Sindh. Similarly another bandit Mohammad Khan gained notoriety during the regime of President Ayub Khan, similar was the situation in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s regime.

The decade of 1984 to 1994 was known as ‘the decade of dacoits’ in Sindh. Although the Pakistani Army carried out a significant campaign against the dacoits in 1992, known as ‘Operation Blue Fox’, during which some of the dacoits were eliminated and the people of Sindh breathed a sigh of relief, but the dacoits returned once the army operation ended.

Following this, robberies and kidnappings for ransom became routine. The study claims that within a decade following the army operation, bandits kidnapped over 11,000 people in Sindh and demanded a ransom of almost four billion rupees. It should be mentioned here that during this ten-year period, the value of the American dollar ranged between Rs 13 to 30. After1995, Khairpur, Sukkur, Ghotki were the main operating areas of the dacoits and usually they used to conduct dozens of raids on travellers every night.

Due to these robberies in those days, travel was impossible after sunset in the districts of Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore. Bandits regularly robbed passenger buses and dozens of travellers became victims of these robberies. Subsequently police and rangers arranged all the trucks and passenger cars in a convoy before they were allowed to continue the journey.

During those days even young boys ventured into these regions to become bandits, since this bandit culture had become pervasive and lucrative.

The districts of Kashmore, Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot were full of these bandits, the majority of them resided in the underdeveloped parts of Shah Belo.

Shah Belo’s territory comprises of hundreds of kilometres, and this area comprises of Sukkur, Ghotki and Kashmore regions. Due to the lack of roads in Shah Belo and the fact that it is a forested (Kacha) area, robbers have a lot of room to hide, making this river area a challenging place for police to patrol.

When Benazir Bhutto was PM, Sindh was still infested by notorious dacoits. The list of bandits included Paro Chandio, Sadiq Gadani, Nader Jaskani, Major Khoso, Nazro Narejo, Sadu Narejo, Colonel Khoso, Kamal Faqir Sheikh, Commando Sheikh, Qadri Chachar, Sullto Shar, and Munir Misrani etc..

These dacoits had formed different groups in different areas of Kacha, although police killed quite few of the bandits during these encounters, but numerous police personnel and officers also lost their lives during the clashes. This situation has continued till this day.

Bandits have sophisticated weaponry like RR 75 and mortar which the dacoits refer to it as Hashtado in their native tongue. The police are armed with Kalashnikovs, G3 rifles and conventional submachine guns. The dacoits roam around in the Kacha region freely on their motorcycles while the police mobiles and armored vehicles are unable to move in the Kacha area due to the absence of paved roads.

One of Upper Sindh’s most notorious robbers is Munir Misrani. In a number of districts, including Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Khairpur and Jacobabad, Munir Misrani is involved in number of robberies and other crimes, registered in different FIRs. The Sindh government has put a reward of Rs 20 million for his head and there is a further consideration of increasing this amount to Rs 30 million.

Misrani is a Hafiz of Quran and an Imam at a Kacha mosque. He is also fond of reciting Naats and wishes to visit Medina. He was interviewed by the Bol News team, while they were in the Shah Belo area, which is known as bandit’s paradise.

“We had no intention to become robbers, but the wealthy and well-connected people have led us to this situation,” Munir Misrani remarked.

“Influential individuals abuse the helpless villagers and fabricate criminal cases against them. Police take money from influential people and abuse people like us, under these circumstances we are left with no choice except to take up arms,” Misrani declared.

He stated that if one were look at the history of the bandits in Sindh, it would come to light that men became bandits due to the tyranny of powerful individuals, ‘Waderas’ and the police.

“Why are we living in a place where there is no road, no healthcare and no education? The majority of the cases against us are false. We want to leave banditry but due to bogus criminal cases fabricated against us we are trapped,” he added. “Also, whenever police couldn’t find criminals of any crime they blame it on me,” Misrani added. “Which is why every FIR names me and my colleagues.”

Sindh is home to numerous tribes and there is also inter-tribal animosity. Some of this animosity is based on family ties, while other instances include disputes over agricultural land. As a result, there are fights and firearms present, but the police instead of solving the tribal disputes tend to deal with it as banditry. These issues are also brought up in relation to robbery.

“The police seize our people’s cattle and tractors, they detain our women, they set fire to the homes of the poor, they kill the villagers on the orders of powerful individuals, and they claim that the dacoits were killed in police encounters and their hideouts were destroyed,” he said and added, “we are now deeply immersed in it as a result of the oppression of the police and powerful individuals.”

Misrani claims that Sultan, also known as Sullto Shar, one of his gang member, was killed by the police during a brawl at an event, which was a false encounter. After this incident no bandit wants to surrender peacefully.

Another associate of Munir Misrani, Ali Sher Dhamiyo, revealed that after joining the police in the Shikarpur area under General Zia-ul-Haq and receiving an appointment letter from the then SSP Raja Israr, he got into a quarrel with some powerful people, and as a result he was compelled to become a dacoit. He currently resides in the Kacha region.

Ali Sher Dhamiyo claims that at his age he does not want to commit any crime and whatever he did was in his past. “We now require a police officer who will speak the truth and let us face the law rather than killing us in a phony encounter if we are to have a way out of this criminal world. A climate should be created where we can choose to repent for our crimes but not for the numerous bogus cases that have been made against us. These cases should be dropped,” he added.

After enquiring the situation from the dacoits of Shah Belo area the BOL team contacted DIG Sukkur Javed Jiskani, as Javed Jaskani had given a video warning to dacoits to surrender, and due to his efforts six dacoits of the Faiz Muhammad Bhindo area of Khairpur Kacha area, namely Javed Narejo, Abdul Ghaffar Narejo, Faiz Muhammad Narejo, Siraj Ahmed, Raza Mohammad Narejo, and Abdul Latif Narejo, who were regarded as symbols of terror, turn themselves in and repented for their crimes.

DIG Sukkur range police Javed Jaskani stated that, “we have delivered this warning to all bandits, including Munir Misrani and other small and big criminals that they should confess to their wrongdoing and turn themselves in. They won’t be killed by the cops in a phony encounter. A few days ago six dacoits from the Khairpur district also turned themselves in. We detained them and send them to jail where they will face criminal charges and we don’t intend to conduct any illegal and unnecessary encounters. We won’t commit any wrong and as a DIG of Sukkur range, I give a guarantee to dacoits that whoever wants to surrender they will be arrested before the media and then they will be sent to jail where they will face the charges against them and no new action or charges would be booked against them. Also if there is any wrongful charges or cases against them, those would be dropped by the police.”

The DIG Sukkur said that it is a very positive step that the dacoits are surrendering by themselves and the police won’t have to take punitive action to control the law and order situation and we are alert to our duties and would remain alert and ready for any action that may be required in this regard. We intend to present these dacoits in court of law and that is our intent.

He said that the dacoits should choose the path of the law and surrender themselves before the police operation starts if the police operation is started, then no police officer will be able to give any guarantee regarding the safety of the dacoits.

Dacoit Munir Masrani and DIG Sukkur Javaid Jaskani’s opinion indicate that with a little effort, Sindh government can get positive results by making these dacoits surrender and hence peace would once again return and the people of the province would be able to live in peace once more.