10+ Dead in Karachi Blast: Aaj aisa nahin, aisa nahin honay daina

Adil Najam

Having to write regular posts of ATP can sometimes become a heavy burden. Not because of the workload. But because of the pain and hurt that can come with following the daily struggles for survival. Today, once again, too many did not survive those struggles.

The News reports from Karachi:

Death toll in the bomb blast in Quaidabad has risen up to eleven, while number of wounded to at least 40. Many labourers, who work in the Landhi industrial area, were stated to be among the victims. Two minors and a woman have been also counted among the dead. Twenty injured were shifted to Social Security Hospital, 40 at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) hospital, while some others were moved to Steel Mills hospital.

Meanwhile, Rangers personnel were deployed at the JPMC hospital to avoid any law and order situation at the facility. Sindh police chief, Azhar Ali Farooqui, visited the crime scene. He claimed that the explosive device was planted in a motorcycle parked at the spot…

“I was leaving the factory when I heard a huge explosion and I saw several people lying in pools of blood on the road. There were more than 30 people who were hit by the blast,” eyewitness Rehman Malik said while talking to a news agency. “As soon as the bomb went off the electricity pylon caught fire and the lights went out. There were bodies lying all around and I could hear people screaming in the darkness,” he added. Wounded people covered in blood and with their clothes blown off by the force of the blast were brought to hospitals in ambulances and the back of pick-up trucks, a reporter of the news agency said.

Gunfire erupted in the area in the wake of the attack.

Quaidabad, Karachi’s horrendous blast has already claimed more than 10 lives – including one of a child. Another blast is reported in Sohailabad, Peshawar, but luckily no deaths reported (yet). Both did what terrorists want to achieve – create widescale panic and fear. When we are shaken through violence – as we have been so very frequently and in so many places – it is a test of our resolve and our social resilience. It is that resolve and resilience that is under attack.

The politics of violence, of uncertainity, of extremism and of military authoritarianism comes together to create a sense of helplessness. Talk to any Pakistani, anywhere, and you can feel the palpable fear and helplesness. A sense that not only have we lost control of what is happening around us, but also that we have no sense of what might happen next.

As I often do in times when I need solace, I went to poetry. This time to this ode of Karachi and Sindh by Ahmad Faraz. Darwaish had inserted this video in a recent post of Pakistan’s multiple crises, but I think it is worth re-inserting here.

It is am immensely powerful poem. Those of you who have heard it might want to hear it again. Those who have not, urge you to do so. In both cases, do please think about what he is saying. A few lines from the poem worth thinking about as we grieve, yet again, the loss of innocent lives at the hands of those who wish to prove the ‘righteousness’ of their cause by violence, murder and mayhem.

On how none of this is new and how the result is always a heightening of ethnic, sectarian and other ‘differences’. Note the “phir say tou kouN hai, meiN kouN houN, aapas meiN sawal” [once again, we ask each other: who are you? who am I?]

phir wohe aag dar aaye hai mairi galiyoun mein
phir mairey shehr mein barood ki boo phaili hai
phir say tou kouN hai, meiN kouN houN, aapas meiN sawal
phir wohi soch miyan-i-mann-o-tou phaili hai

On how we are sp quick to blame ‘outsiders’ for our misery, as if we had no hand in it ourselves. Note the “ mairey seenay meiN sadda apna he khanjar utra” [it has always been my own dagger that has pierced my heart]

mairi basti say parrey bhi mairey dushman houN gay
par yahaN kabb koee aghyaar ka lashkar uttra
aashna haath he aksar mairey janab labkay
mairey seenay meiN sadda apna he khanjar utra

This part is my favorite. About how fear (khouf) and uncertainty (tazabzub) rules, and how much havoc is brought forth by those who use the rhetoric of patriotism (naara-i-hubb-i-watan) and of religion. Note the “ naara-i-hubb-i-watan maal-i-tajarat ki tarhaaN“ [slogans of patriotism are traded like commodity in a bazaar] and the “ jinss-i-arzaaN ki tarhaaN deen-i-khuda ki baateiN” [talk of religion has become like a commodity in over-supply].

phir wohi khauf ki deewar, tazabzub ki faza
phir hoeeN aam wohoee ahl-i-riya ki baateiN
naara-i-hubb-i-watan maal-i-tajarat ki tarhaaN
jinss-i-arzaaN ki tarhaaN deen-i-khuda ki baateiN

And he ends with these words of hope that give me great solace. When he talks about “mairey dilgeer, mairey dard kay maarey logou” he seems to be talking to us directly today. But the real kicker is in the last two lines: “ kissi ghasib, kissi zalim, kissi qatil kay leeaye, khod ko taqseem na karna, mairey saarey logou” [do not, O please do not, let the usurpers, the tyrants, the murders divide you into factions].

aaj aisa nahiN, aisa nahiN honay daina
aye mairey sokhta jaano, mairey piyarey logou
abb kay gar zalzalay aaye tou qiyamat ho ge
mairey dilgeer, mairey dard kay maarey logou
kissi ghasib, kissi zalim, kissi qatil kay leeaye
khod ko taqseem na karna, mairey saarey logou