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).
eidee and observer stop your lies
It’s amazing to how a “MAN IN BLACK” drove entire govt machinry crazy including Musharraf. I just read news that Justice Flak sher refused to take part in hearing. I don’t know why.
ARMY RULES……………….OVER THE BLOOD OF ITS OWN PEOPLE. GETTING MORE THAN 70%of PAKISTAN’S BUDGET THEY ARE NOT YET SATISFIED. SO WHAT IF BLOOD IS FLOWING ON STREETS OF KARACHI MUSHI N HIS THUGS ARE IN POWER. WHAT MATTER’S MORE. 16 CRORE KI ABADI MAIN 36 KAM HONE KA KOI NUKSAN TAU NAHI HAINA.
اعجاز Ù…Û
[quote comment=”47057″]Frankly, I think some of the discussion about News etc. is silly… or you think you can just pressure and intimidate it by these silly comments.
The web page really doesn’t matter and the breaking news there is not by importance it is in the order of which news is received when. Second, if you look at the real newspaper today and the main news items at the top of the page it is clear that the newspaper is doing good and bold reporting and clearly focussed on the killings and clearly blaming the sitting Sindh govt of MQM for it. The problem with you ‘keyboard pundits’ is that you cant even take the trouble of looking at the real newspaper and just need something to rant about. The danger is that you will even lose the respect of those journalists who are doing something real in this battle for democracy.[/quote]
Yes, it is fair for you to criticize us, especially ones like myself who do not even use their real name when posting on websites.
However, your claims that your “The News” organization and the Jang group is taking an unbiased approach would be UTTERLY LAUGHABLE if the crimes committed on that tragic day were not so heinous.
As of right now, your website has only one story about this incident which reads “Altaf sees terrorism plot behind Karachi violence.” The MQM thugs brutally massacre scores of people and you’re getting the butcher-in-chief’s perspective??
Go back to journalism school…you aren’t even half-baked yet.