KARACHI:
After years of evading capture and casting a long shadow over southern Punjab’s river belt, one of the region’s most notorious outlaws finally surrendered on Friday.
Tanveer Andhar, a criminal with a bounty of Rs 10 million. and wanted in more than 100 serious cases, turned himself in to the Punjab police as authorities declared that no organized dacoit gangs remained active in the province’s Katcha area.
Long described by the police as one of the most feared criminals operating in the Indus river belt, Andhar had become synonymous with lawlessness in parts of Rahim Yar Khan and adjoining districts.
Despite his slight build, officials said he was implicated in more than 30 murders and a series of high-profile abductions and violent attacks.
The Punjab government had put a bounty of Rs 10 million on his head.
The Andhar gang was considered one of the most dangerous among the 12 dacoit groups operating in the Katcha belt, a difficult terrain of river islands historically used as a safe haven by armed gangs that took advantage of provincial borders to evade law enforcement.
According to police records, the Andhar gang was behind several high-profile incidents that sent shockwaves across Punjab and Sindh.
Among them was the abduction of 11 passengers from the M-5 highway, as well as the kidnapping of an entire passenger bus along with its occupants from Ghotki last December.
In 2021, gunmen associated with the group allegedly shot dead nine people at a gas pump in Sadiqabad.
The attack, which was caught on CCTV, shocked both provinces. Police said Andhar was directly involved in the killing of five policemen and indirectly linked to the death of 12 others in Rahim Yar Khan district.
For years, his ability to evade arrest reinforced the perception of the Katcha belt as a lawless frontier beyond the immediate reach of the state.
DPO Rahim Yar Khan Irfan Samo said the Katcha region had now been cleared of organized crime groups.
“No gang is active in Punjab’s Katcha area anymore,” he said, noting that 11 of the 12 gangs had already surrendered, with the Andhar group the last remaining network.
According to Samo, five members of the gang were killed in police encounters, while 48 had so far surrendered. The operation, launched in December, was carried out in close coordination with the Sindh police, which he described as instrumental in dismantling cross-border criminal networks operating between the two provinces.
