BBC World

The Sindh Rangers have made remarkable achievements in the on-going Karachi operation to root out crime and terrorism from the city, according to the paramilitary force's annual operations report. Since the launch of the operation in September 2013, incidents of crime, violence and terrorism in Karachi are at an all-time low, according to the report, which came out on December 29. The statistics are remarkable because previously Karachi was consistently the most violent city in Pakistan, claiming thousands of lives each year. Report statistics According to the report, 2016 saw a 93% decrease in extortion cases, 91% decrease in targeted killings, 86% decrease in kidnapping for ransom and 72% decrease in incidents of terrorism. The Rangers conducted 1,992 operations that led to the arrests of 2,847 suspects and the seizure of 1,845 weapons, the report said. Among the detainees, 350 were terrorists from banned outfits. Throughout the course of the operation, the report...

By Dr. Nancy Fahim KARACHI: “A large part of the community is suffering from mutual hatred, ethnocentric mindset, intolerance, extremism and terrorism. Creating and promoting diversity is a noble cause under such circumstances,” said Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, professor emeritus, Punjab University, in his keynote address at the inauguration of an international conference titled ‘Diversity and peace: challenges to social discourse’ organised by the faculty of social sciences, University of Karachi, on Tuesday. “The need of the hour is to promote political accommodation of diversity and a culture of tolerance and harmony through a dialogue across all kinds of divides that we encounter today. We need to build bridges of cooperation, positive interaction, dialogue and mutual sharing rather than barriers and walls that divide us and cause mutual distrust and conflict,” he said. “Religious and cultural extremism and terrorism dating back to the 1980s involved domestic and global factors a...