Adil Najam
Karachi used to be called “the city that never sleeps.” It may as well now be called “the city that forever bleeds.”
Karachi is bleeding again. More than a dozen dead. 80 injured. The Sindh Home Minister says “shoot to kill.” And everyone expects more blood to spill on the streets of Karachi. Fear rules the thoroughfares of Karachi.
Here are some snapshots of what has been happening:
The News: Confusion and chaos reigned supreme in many parts of the city due to widespread rumours of violence in the city on Saturday evening. Shops and markets in Saddar, Zainab Market, Zebunnisa Street and Burns Road were closed. Besides, petrol pumps on Sharea Faisal and Saddar areas were also shutdown. Vendors and pushcarts selling eatables were also not seen near major streets of the area. Police mobile vans were seen patrolling the affected areas and personnel taking positions to thwart any law and order situation.
Daily Times: The riots started from Banaras, early on Saturday, when a driver and conductor of a local route were thrashed by a mob in Mosa Colony. As a result the aggravated locals started firing and resorted to violence. The riots spread like bush fire, engulfing surrounding areas where groups of angry protesters pelted stones and fired at cars, setting fire to many vehicles. Two rickshaws and motorcycles were burned at Pak Colony, two buses and two motorcycles in Ittehad Town, two tankers at Nagan Chowrangi and one water tanker in Qasba Morr.
The News: Naseeb, aged 22, said that he was travelling in a rickshaw when he was intercepted by four armed men riding motorcycles near Abdullah College. When Naseeb told the armed men that he was going home to Qasba Colony, one of the armed men took out his pistol and fired at him. After injuring him, the armed men fled from the scene. Safdar Khan, a 30-year-old minibus driver, said that armed men intercepted his vehicle near Qasba Mor No-1 and ordered all the passengers to get down. Afterwards, when Safdar was still in the bus, the armed men opened fire at him and set the vehicle ablaze. Muneer, a 23-year-old labourer, was going home towards Peerabad when unidentified gunmen opened fire at him and fled. Two other persons Inam Dar, aged 25, and Rose Zameer, aged 26, also sustained bullet injuries in Peerabad area and were brought to the JPMC.
The Nation: At 8:30pm on Saturday night, traffic was barely reported on the City’s main arteries including MA Jinnah road, Karachi University Road, Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Sir Shah Suleman Road, Shershah Soori Road, Shah Faisal Road, and other important roads. The public transport including buses, minibuses, rickshaws and taxies were disappeared from all the main thoroughfares when the violence news spread in different parts of the City. The transporters took off their vehicles due to fear of burning, while private commuters were also avoiding to come on the streets due to the rumours and fear… People were sending mobile messages to their relatives and friends about the effected areas as well as inquiring about the situation of settled other areas.
The News: A rickshaw driver, Nasir Mehmood, told The News that, early in the morning, he was strictly advised not to visit places like Banaras or Sohrab Goth at any cost and told that, if he ventured there, he would be targeted due to his ethnicity by the residents of those areas. “At Korangi Road, another fellow rickshaw driver refused to go to Orangi although he was offered almost double the normal fare; he still felt insecure travelling there,†said Mehmood. A resident of Manzoor Colony, Inaam-ul-Haq, told The News that he was scheduled to visit the Cattle Market situated on the Super Highway on Saturday to buy a sacrificial animal. “Due to the circulation of terrifying news, I decided to defer my plans to go there,†he said.
Dawn: According to a private television channel, Pirabad police said two unknown gunmen opened fire in the Bukhari Colony area of Orangi Town at about 2:30 p.m., killing two men and fleeing swiftly. Later, three bodies were brought to Orangi Town’s Qatar Hospital while injured were being treated in different hospitals around the city. One person was also killed during firing in the De Silva town area. Airports nationwide were put on red alert and the airports’ special passes were cancelled for security purposes, television reports said. The incidents of violence struck various parts of the city, including Banaras, Orangi Town, Quaidabad, North Karachi and Nazimabad.
Everyone seems to know the script of the drama that is about to unfold, yet again, on the streets of Karachi. Except that the deaths will be real, not make-believe. Those who will be doing the killing have been arming up. Those who will be doing the instigation have already upped their rhetoric of hate, division and violence. Those who will be doing the dying, remain on knife’s edge, hoping that they will not be called upon to be sacrificed in the rituals of ethnic murder, so close to the Eid of sacrifice. The rest sit stunned in inaction as the politics of mayhem readies to raise its ugly head yet again. We see Pakistani kill Pakistani in the name of Pakistan. We sit afraid. Very afraid.
When will this murder stop? Why must violence be the only resort? How much blood can the streets of Karachi soak? When will we learn that violence is not teh solution to our problems. It is the problem!
This is not my first post on Karachi that I am compelled to end with the prayer: “Khuda Khair Karray!” Indeed, I have had to use that refrain too many times for violence all over the country. Once again, I can think of nothing else to say. Except, maybe, that the “Khair” will first have to come from our own hearts and from our own actions.
I do think that the MQM is instigating this but this is not as simple as Gill makes it. Anyone who has actually lived in Karachi and understands its politics knows that this is a long and complicated issue that goes into the 1970s. This time, I think, it is also about internal power struggles in the MQM. Some key MQM leaders who had been in exile in London for long time have returned and are now trying to take back control from those who have been running MQM in meantime. Also, the fact is that there are also real tensions between the two communities of Pathans and Mohajirs and these have to be solved. In recent days, as is clear from news reports, there has been violence from both sides. Discussing who started it is not useful the important thing is to stop it.
Don’t leave the country like some here are saying. I’m an overseas Pakistani who has come back to his country, though I spent my entire life living in the West.
The West is about to collapse in far worse fashion than anything you have ever seen in Pakistan. The difference is that Pakistanis have been living with this for a while and can deal with it. When things go bad in the West, the people will be caught off-guard and will turn into the worst sort of animals.
If you have to leave, leave Karachi. Punjab is mostly free of this sort of hangama, and a better destination if you’re Punjabi and/or Pathan.
Why is there not one mention of MQM in this article? You’re not doing normal Pakistanis any favors by covering up what’s going on.
MQM’s on an anti-Pathan rampage and got into fights with ANP people. People are saying they’ve burned some people alive in their houses. This is part of Altaf’s bigger plan to turn the focus onto phantom ‘Talibanization’ in Sindh, Karachi especially. He’s been talking about it to any Western diplomat that will listen. He wants to procure more power for MQM out of the fallout that will result from his party instigating all this chaos.
It’s a matter of time before MQM stage a ‘false flag’ operation, a terrorist attack on a government target, making it appear to be a Taliban attack. Yet anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that there are no Taliban in Karachi. When MQM started riots in 2007, it was Jamaat-e-Islaami who fought them. Though they’re MMA, they’ve certainly got nothing to do with the Taliban.
The PPP is also complicit in this. Altaf will listen to Zardari. Why hasn’t he reigned him in while his allies (ANP) are suffering?
Its very simple, this is never ever going to end, my advice to the young generation of pakistan and especially the generation in Karachi is – finish your studies with the objective of leaving the country and never go back. Enough is enough, enough of praying that things improve, let things improve…………lets just accept it that as a country and a city we just cannot improve and lets just leave and move on with our lives.
I have seen this start in Karachi when I was there in 1986 ( the Bushra Zaidi incident) in class 9 and from them on curfews and killing and on and on and again today………..as I say all the young people of pakistan should simply aim to leave the country , get a better life outside of Pakistan and thats the end of it.
I think the MQM, with PPPs tactic support, is again playing a dangerous game in Karachi and once again innocent Pakistanis, Pushtuns as well as Mohajirs, will end up dying in these bloody political games!