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 find the accusations that Pakhtuns are mostly involved in crime in Karachi to be pure racism from Muhajirs. They and their gangster political party, MQM are the real criminals and dons of Karachi.
There is no surprise in the MQM ghundagardi or the tensions with the Pushtuns but the real story here is the silence of the PPP govt in Islamabad who seem to have allowed this to happen. I fear that this will again turn people off democracy and usher in another period of military rule.
This ethnic storm was brewing up. Why? The answer is quite complex. Let me simplify it. Afghan war and unchecked migration of Afghans and Pashtun population has created all this mess.
Pashtuns are generally hard working people. Have made great contribution in running the factories and transport of this city. It has been acknowledge a number of times by city nazim Mustufa Kamal that Pashtuns are the part of this city and have done wonderful job in making this city beautiful.
He, however, warned them at certain occasion that they should simply work for their own financial benefits. The outside politicians (implying towards ANP) will simply use them. This is exactly what happening here.
ANP has taken advantage of concentration of Pashtun population living in slum areas of Karachi. They have been able to win two seats (due to boycott of Islamic parties) in Karachi. These slums populated by Pashtuns were the result of land grabbing.
The people coming from NWFP, though hardworking, have no choice but to do encroachment to live in this mega city. Al-Asif Square, Banaras and Quidabad, their key residential areas were populated as a result of land grabbing.
Now these areas have become dens for criminal activities. In these slums sales of drugs, illegal arms and prostitution have become a normal part of life.
Most of the criminals committing street crimes in Karachi live in the areas dominated by Pashtun ethnicity. It does not mean that all Pashtuns are criminal, but certainly, most of the criminal activities are being organized from their localities. The reason of crimes are poverty and illiteracy in Pashtun youth.
Karachi’s dominating ethnicity, Muhajirs or Urdu speaking community is now fad up due to rising crimes in the city. Unfortunately, most of the criminals belong to or come from Pashtun localities, the hatred in naturally directed towards them. A great pradox is that most of the gurads and chowkidars they hire for their protection belong to the very same community they hate most!
To make the matter worse, people fleeing from tribal areas due to military operations are also flocking towards Karachi. This is a very dangerous trend need to be checked by government on urgent basis.
Most of these people are supporters of Talibans. They are ruthless, well-trained and well-armed. Today they are trying to settle here, tomorrow they will try to impose their version of Islam to the liberal and educated citizen of this city.
The incident that precipitated extreme hatred towards Pashtun ethnicity was the day when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. The people of this city experienced horrendous lawlessness.
The looting, arson, abducting and raping of women was of such a great scale that had never been witnessed in Karachi. The ethnicity, rightly or wrongly, noted to have done all this were unfortunately Pashtuns.
There were number of factories in industrial areas of Karachi that were specifically targeted because they did not have Pashtun workers employed in it. All of them were burned that day.
Thousands of cars, not rickshaws or minibuses or taxis, were burned. Khayber bank was not set on fire, but the UBL across the street was torched. All those factories where Pashtuns were employed in goodly numbers were not torched, in some cases, they were even saved by Pashtoon workers, where they were employed.
These were the incidents that alarmed Muhajirs and they now see Pashtuns as threat to the city and its peaceful life.
ANP is now adding fuel to this fire, because this situation would help them sale the idea of Pashtun nationalism to the poor pashtuns who are suffering more than ever. This suffering will provide more recruits for violence and criminal activities to ANP.
A second reason of this hatred is different mafias run by the people who belong to this poor Pashtum community. These mafias include: Water-tanker mafia, transport mafia, drugs mafia, illegal arms mafia, street-crimes mafia and human trafficking (women) mafia.
All this has now actually turned a dormant volcano into active one.
This is my analysis. People may agree or disagree with me.
The source of shame is from our own
Just look around this land of pure
In the name of Islam a nation of our own
Concepts of her creation nolonger sure!
Sacrifices of our elders all but forgotten
Divided, disarrayed – values all but gone
Concept of ummah, awam – all but forgotten
Meaning of Islam – Pakistan all but gone
So long as the status quo remains the fate of this nation
These murine vermin will continue to plague the nation
Let
Other then MQM and ANP, media and tanga politicians like Imran Khan and Qazi are equally responsible for this maddness.
Why because they fuelled the vengence in pashtun community by doing politics of May 12 2007 events. These people will not come to fuse fire in Karachi.
Media did not realized that thousands of people had died in ethinic riots of 1986 and thousand can die in future. They fuel the anger of pashtuns.
Media shown very detail coverage of May 12.
This is madness and it shows that it is not about muslims or non muslims. There is a animal inside us all.