Pakistan, Feb. 7 -- Speaking at a press conference in Karachi, Sindh Inspector General of Police Javed Alam Odho noted that since the launch of a renewed crackdown last month, 113 encounters have taken place in the katcha areas, leaving 27 alleged kidnappers dead, 82 injured, and 77 arrested. Another 123 suspects, the authorities said, have surrendered.

While giving credit where due, experience counsels restraint, for Sindh has witnessed many such campaigns rise and fade before, each marked by early success but ultimately undone by structural weaknesses that allow criminal networks to dissolve into the Indus backwaters only to re-emerge once attention shifts elsewhere. Year after year, simple prosecutions never reach the true architects ...