KARACHI:
After years of evading capture and casting a long shadow over southern Punjab’s riverine belt, one of the region’s most notorious outlaws finally surrendered on Friday.
Tanveer Andhar, a criminal who received a reward of Rs 10 million and was wanted in more than 100 serious cases, surrendered to the Punjab Police when authorities declared that there were no organized robbery gangs active in the Katcha area of the province.
Long described by 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, authorities said he was implicated in more than 30 murders and a series of high-profile kidnappings and violent attacks.
The Punjab government had offered a reward of Rs 10 million on his head.
The Andhar gang was considered one of the most dangerous among the 12 robber groups operating in the Katcha belt, a difficult terrain of riverine islands historically used as a safe haven by armed gangs exploiting provincial borders to evade law enforcement.
According to police records, the Andhar gang was behind several high-profile incidents that caused commotion across Punjab and Sindh.
These included the kidnapping of 11 passengers on the M-5 highway, as well as the kidnapping of a passenger bus complete with its occupants in Ghotki in December last year.
In 2021, gunmen linked to the group allegedly shot dead nine people at a petrol pump in Sadiqabad.
The attack, captured on CCTV, shocked both provinces. Police said Andhar was directly involved in the murder of five policemen and indirectly linked to the death of 12 other people in Rahim Yar Khan district.
For years, their 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 criminal groups.
“There is no longer any active gang in the Katcha area of Punjab,” he said, noting that 11 of the 12 gangs had already surrendered, with the Andhar group being the last remaining network.
According to Samo, five members of the gang died in clashes with police, while 48 had surrendered so far. The operation, launched in December, was carried out in close coordination with the Sindh police, which it described as instrumental in dismantling cross-border criminal networks operating between the two provinces.
