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 carrying a Rs10 million bounty and wanted in more than 100 serious cases, turned himself in to Punjab police as authorities declared that no organised dacoit gangs remained active in the province’s Katcha area.
Long described by police as one of the most-feared criminals operating in the Indus riverine 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 over 30 murders and a string of high-profile abductions and violent attacks.
The Punjab government had placed a Rs10 million bounty on his head.
The Andhar gang was regarded as one of the most dangerous among the 12 dacoit groups that operated in the Katcha belt, a difficult terrain of riverine islands historically used as a safe haven by armed gangs exploiting provincial boundaries 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 Motorway, as well as the kidnapping of an entire passenger bus along with its occupants from Ghotki in December last year.
In 2021, armed men linked to the group allegedly shot dead nine people at a petrol pump in Sadiqabad.
The attack, captured on CCTV, stunned both provinces. Police said Andhar was directly involved in the killing of five police personnel and indirectly linked to the deaths 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 organised criminal 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 being the last remaining network.
According to Samo, five members of the gang were killed in police encounters, while 48 had surrendered so far. The operation, launched in December, was carried out in close coordination with Sindh police, which he described as instrumental in dismantling cross-border criminal networks operating between the two provinces.
