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).
پولیس Ú©ÙˆÛÂ?تھÛÅ⠀™ÃƒËœÃ‚§Ã˜Â± Ù†ÛÂ? دینے ÛÂ?دایت تھی
BBC
[quote comment=”47315″]Two major groups are angry at each other. What next? Hope history doesn’t repeat itself.[/quote]
Again, seems like you’re in need of some professional help. Two groups are not merely fighting against each other. A bunch of terrorists are killing other people….denial!
Ibrahim, I was going to post same link but thankfully I already read your post. Whatever mentioned in the article is not enough. If you listen early addresses of Altaf then he himself used to say things which are in article.
I wish Altaf wouldn’t have come back from dhaka.
I just want to say that you guys at PAKISTANIAT are doing a great job by giving us this space of expression and by being fair and open.
Please take care of yourself in these difficult times.
The killing of teh deputy registrar yesterday was clearly an attempt to threaten those supporting the CJ. Sending message to journalists and lawyers that anyone supporting the CJ even mildly could be targetted.
Pakistani elected leaders are fighting
so as long as they are doing it inside the assemblies, they don’t have to engage in street violence. I guess all is good.
Two major groups are angry at each other. What next? Hope history doesn’t repeat itself.
Salamalikum,
People really need to read this very sad article on BBC Urdu originally posted by Jamal Shamsi at KMB:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/miscellaneous/story/2007 /05/070514_altaf_hussain_rza.shtml
It doesn’t tell anything new but give some basic details about origins of MQM, etc and its aftermath.
It reconfirmed what I had learned from elders and other people in Karachi. MQM turned people of Karachi who used to vote/support religious parties (for whatever reason—lack of another party to support??), didn’t show a lot animosity and a qaum that سات دÙÂ?عÛÂ? آداب بجا لاتی
تھی (saat dafa adaab baja lati thi) into a qaum that it’s today. And, this is very true. Besides many legacies, one poignant legacy of MQM is that it dealt with elders who disagreed with it in an extremely bad manner while still basking in glory of the fact that they are children of tameezdar mohazab cultured people!!
At the height of MQM support in early-mid ’90s due to army operation, we used to get both “Jang” and “Aman” newspapers, “Aman” being MQM’s answer to Jang. And, the language used to describe Moudoudi (a muhajir just like them) was extremely gree hoi. No gali glouch but very sarcastic, dismissive and threatening. And, at the same time they want to show that Jameeluddin Aali was their senator!
GOD SAVE KARACHI (ameen)