KARACHI - The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi on Wednesday revealed that police can not move against persons involved in target killings because most of the culprits are in one way or the other have political affiliations, and this is causing problems for police to flush them out from the political umbrella which they are using to avoid their arrest. The CCPO disclosed this while submitting his statement through Iftikhar Hussain Tarar, DIG Investigation, before a division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Rizvi on a constitutional petition filed by Syed Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi against target killings. Representing the CCPO, the DIG Investigation submitted that the City Police Chief has taken several initiatives to chase the suspects involved in the target killing. Hence, concrete efforts were made which then led to arresting of a large number of culprits involved in the target killing cases during current year. However, unrelenting efforts continued by the police to arrest the remaining culprits in such cases. It was submitted in the CCPOs official statement, that senior officers are assigned to supervise task of detection of said cases and arrest of culprits. The information generated from the interrogation of the accused persons in the solved cases, will lead to exposing of other culprits who are still at large but circle is being narrowed against them. They are expected to be arrested soon, said the statement. The further stated that as regard the failure in the detection of the cases of target killings, it may be pointed out that the culprits have mostly gone underground to avoid their arrest, especially after the arrest of some of their associates. In some cases, the culprits have gone to tribal areas of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other remote areas to escape their arrest. However, special teams have been formed to arrest these culprits for which intelligence network has already been laid. Cooperation of sister intelligence agencies is also being obtained for the arrest of the fugitives but since most of the culprits are politically affiliated with different political parties, problem is being faced by police to flush them out from the political Umbrella which they are using to avoid their arrest. Apart from this, special teams of experienced officers have also been constituted in Special Investigation Unit (SIU) CCP Karachi for the sole object of arresting the culprits in such cases. The hectic efforts which are being made to arrest the target killers are likely to result in the arrest of the remaining culprits soon. The official also submitted a report on the target killings occurred from January 01, 2011 to April 19, wherein a total 147 cases were reported at deferent police stations of Capital City Police Karachi. The court after hearing his comments adjourned hearing for the next date to be fixed later, while directed the attorney general to submit comments on the next hearing. The petitioner submitted that the government has totally failed to provide security to the citizens, as the ongoing waves of target killings claimed 445 lives from January 2009, to Jun 30 in different parts of the city, while 54 deceased belonged to Muhajor Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi). He submitted that only one political party Muhajor Qaumi Movement (MQM) was banned to continue its activities, while the parts of the city were declared as No Go Areas for the MQM activists by a particular political party while violating the constitution. He added that despite making several tall claims the provincial police failed to arrest any culprit. Federal Interior Secretary, DG ISI, DG IB, Sindh Chief Secretary, Director General Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), IG Sindh Police, CCPO Karachi, AVCC police, MQM MPA Raza Haroon, President ANP Sindh Shahi Syed, and others were cited as respondents. The plaintiff pleaded that to produce entire records of the target killings before the court, while issue order to arrest all the culprits involved in the killings. It was also prayed to provide protection to the citizens, abolish the No Go Areas for the one victim political party, and also conduct operation in the city against the illegal weapons across the metropolitan.