Adil Najam
Pictures on the television show Karachi burning. The city is at war. Morchas everywhere. Clashes, violence, firing, deaths.
The Chief Justice is holed up at the airport and the streets are ruled by mobs. Aaj TV is being fired at and Talat Hussain reports that the police and rangers are unable to get their to help because the roads are blocked (to stop the Chief Justice). Of course, these road blocks have not stopped the killers who are firing at the TV station. As of now 15 are reported dead. Over 100 seriously injured. Hospitals in Karachi have declared an emergency. The Prime Minister has called an emergency meeting of his own to respond to what the government is calling a ’security situation’ but which sounds, smells, looks and feels like the beginning of a war on the streets of Karachi. Flights in and out of the city are stalled. Train traffic is stopped. The city seems to have descended back to its darkest days of street violence.
Meanwhile, the petty blame game continues. But things are changing too fast for one to analyze them. But one thing is certain. Things have gone out of control. Totally out of control. Totally out of everyone’s control. It is a sad sad day for all of us.
I wish I had something more profound to say. All I can hink of right now is what someone wrote on our comments section recently: Khuda Khair Karray!
(Picture credits BBC and The News and pictorial story at Bilal Zuberi’s blog; great blog coverage at Karachi Metroblog).
One thing which people didn’t discuss here and it’s happening in Karachi is Pathan-Mohajir clash. Today,most of the news I heard about clash were in pathan dominated areas like Qasba colony,orangi,pathan colony etc and it ahppeend all when MQM published pics of pathans “firing” on roads. Seriously, we can’t afford another “31st October” in Karachi.
The most pathetic thing was severe violence at FB Area water pump where mobs burnt several shops of bamboos and several other shops. Most of constructed roads have been damaged. Mustafa Kamal should go to London and kiss the hands of his peer for his magic[Karamat] which changed entire city into Beirut in few minutes.
I was reading on gEO, students of 9th class who are appearing in exams from 16th May have not got their admit cards yet. I can feel the pain as I also had gone painful moments in 94/95 when I was in college.
I look at the sad faces of the grieving relatives of the dead, and of the dead themselves, and find myself asking how cheap we have made the blood of the same youth who are descendants of those who fought for freedom from colonizers. These pictures could have been taken in Iraq or Beirut, or name your favorite Muslim hot spot for troble, and we would barely recognize a difference. We are wasting, killing, our precious generations on our own streets…Our future may be drowing in their blood,and fleeing from our country, if we don’t put an end to this madness.
http://bznotes.wordpress.com/2007/05/12/karachi-is -burning-a-political-and-security-crisis/
I share Zia’s sentiment: â€Â?mein kis kay haath mein apna lahoo talaash karoonâ€Â?
Altaf and company doesn’t get tired saying that we are against “jageerdarana nizaam” of Pakistan. But what about the jageerdaar in London who is there for the past 17 years and enjoying luxuries!
Today I heard Dr. Farooq Sattar saying in the press conference that some some elements are trying to divide Karachi ethnically like 1986. I say it’s the MQM who first started it and they actually divided the Karachi ethnically otherwise before that we were living peacefully. People don’t have short memories and they still cannot forget “TV baicho Kalashinkov kharido”.
If you want to read about MQM history visit the following page on Federation of American Scientist website:
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/yearwise_de tail_mqm.htm
It has yearwise detail of MQM atrocities right from 1986 to 1998.
All happened under the nose of the Govt, I have a few logical questions based on my observations, I hope anyone can answer them:
1) How come the so called (un)known mis-chief makers managed to block the main Sharah-e-Faisal at FTC, Aisha Bawani and Gora Qabristain with long axle vehicles(Buses Tankers and Trucks) and made all the tires deflated right under the nose of the Saddar Police Station (which is opposite Gora Qabristan)? Probably they got a little too much at that night……..!
2) Why the blockings were not removed on time to un-block the main artery of the city, which also leads to the biggest hospital in Karachi? I pray someone could stage the same while Mushy or Shuaki comes to Karachi.
3) Why the police and rangers took no step to stop the clashes (reference point FTC, Police is under 100 meters while rangers were 200 meters away from the flashpoint?
Perhaps they were waiting for Mushy to come so they can remove the baricades.
4) Why Aaj TV did not zoom-in to capture the number plates of the vehicles used by the shooters and got the ammo from?Purpose to track down the culprits……?
5) When Aaj TV’s office was under attack why the required protection was not sent in?
6) Who has censored the newspapers and media not to report the events in their right and full context? Hiding the facts (Shahadats/witnesses) is also a sin.
Many more questions but lets only focus on these.
Asfandyar wali whom and whose politics I have never been fond of said it right that where should they go for justice when murderers are wearing gloves and playing the victim. About media giving limited coverage, people need to know the tacit power of mqm. No party in pakistan is good at crushing the opponents in a blood bath like mqm can. To the extent that in early 90s I personally met their “unit and sector in charge” men who were running from their cities claiming that mqm was killing its own low level office holders to get headlines in the papers. Some of them ran from their houses in hyderabad and karachi with just the clothes they were wearing in the middle of the day to live. And they were die hard mqm workers. Sometimes its hard to believe that a simple ISI idea to create a mullah (JI to be specific) neutralizing party in urban sindh (karachi, hyderabad, sukhur and mirpurkhas) in the mid 80s can go this far.
MQM had the right to exist and be the voice of people who needed it, not be the voice of bullets , violence, force, juvenile motor bikers shooting AK47 everywhere.
Now MQM just like PML(N) is so much in control of the government. two down a few more to go…!
[quote comment=”47092″]if i was in CJ’s shoes i would have resigned… it is purely because him the violence accoured. he is only tryin to politicize is cause and gain popularity to hide his real deeds…. he can go back to where he belongs and is not welcome in karachi![/quote]
Who are you to decide who is and who is not welcome in Karachi? You and your disgusting political party does not own the city, never will!
violence occurred only in Karachi because this is the only place where u and ur goons had power and u never shied in misusing it.
violence occurred only in Karachi because u and ur goons wanted to disrupt CJ’s visit any day of the year he would have planned to make.
Whether the CJ is a man of good or bad deeds is totally out of the current crisis now, its about misusing your disgusting powers and creating chaos in our city.
Even if he was politicizing the case, the government and MQM has no right to stop them by law, nor create obstacles in their trips.
[quote comment=”46896″]While I didn’t hope more sensible reaction from the current regime on the issue of security what I am truly appalled is by the complacency (or dheet pan) of Karachiites and their utterly irrational refusal to accept change in their lives by allowing a truly ignorant and goddamn vagabond aka Altaf hussain’s ghundas roam at their will and damage the very fabric of social, civic and economic lives of this city which boasts the highest generating revenue compared with the whole country.
I am saddened by the realization of Karachiites’ dilemma: Urdu speaking have no other voice but Altaf Hussain so let’s stick to him (however bad he might be).
As for the police and government, it was predictable and shameful behavior nonetheless. However, had there been no friggin’ MQM, the city could have been more at peace. I wonder despite the many great things about this city, what is the average IQ of an average Karachiite. I mean, for god’s sake, this is your very own friggin’ city. Governments will come, and governments will fall. But what legacy as a civil society do WE leave behind us?
The moral fibre of this society has weakened to such a state that I could have no possible hope from any area but from those who remain silent and yet are capable of a lot more than what they think of themselves.[/quote]
With your above average IQ, would you say, that if there were no frigging (to use your choice of language) Jamaat Islami, there would be no fr– MQM, if there were no fr–PPP, there were no MQM and so on and so forth. Are you ready to ponder just a wee bit, that the first bullets were fired at the MQM rally near the Wireless gate. I know for a fact, that after routing the Jamaat in Karachi, MQM is making inroads in rural Sindh. Are you willing to consider, just for the sake of argument, that the PPP fears losing its stranglehold in Sindh and found an ideal opportunity on the 12th to strike back. My view is MQM made a misjudgement when it decided to hold its rally (on the advise of Islamabad) the day the Chief Justice was coming.