JEDDAH, 18 August 2005 — As part of the ongoing crime sweep in Jeddah, security forces raided the districts of Al-Sabeel, Hindawiya and Nuzlah yesterday and apprehended 1,170 people, most of them Bangladeshi overstayers.
According to the police, 17 people arrested during the early morning raid are suspected criminals and the rest illegal overstayers. Eleven security and government agencies took part in the operation led by Brig. Gen. Misfer Al-Zuhami, the head of Jeddah police.
This is the second such operation in the city this week. Police raided 157 houses in the districts of Al-Rabwah and Al-Sharafia last Monday and apprehended 904 people.
During yesterday’s raid, criminal investigation officers captured a wanted murderer 24 hours after he allegedly stabbed a Bangladeshi worker in Makkah to death using a pair of scissors, a police source said.
Security forces uncovered liquor factories, production centers of pirated CDs and DVDs and illegal call cabins. They also found a wanted car suspected to have been involved in criminal activities and arrested a Chadian drug peddler.
“We are very pleased with the results of yesterday’s operation; the men did a good job,” said a police official.
In the four-hour-long operation, which started around midnight and continued till dawn, police used informers to pinpoint suspicious houses. Both Saudi and expatriate residents voluntarily chipped in providing logistic information, moral support and distributing drinking water to the officers.
“We are happy, they are cleaning our neighborhoods and we will help in anyway possible,” said Abu Saed, a 54-year-old Saudi resident of Al-Sabeel. Police said the majority of the overstayers apprehended yesterday were Bangladeshi nationals.
