One on One
WHAT IS BEHIND KARACHI?
BY MUNIR AHMED BALOCH:
It was a bright shiny day of January 2009 when some workers of *Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) opened a party office in Rabia City Apartments and hoisted their party flag there. This created a shockwave in the adjoining localities. The Pakistani media, law-enforcing agencies and others know it full well that Rabia City is the den of Shahi Syed of *ANP. No sooner had the flag hoist by *JSQM then Shahi Syed was informed about it and those who hoisted the flag were abducted and subjected to inhuman torture after being taken to unknown location. When the news of abduction of JSQM workers spread and their fellow workers reached Rabia City, they were greeted with Kalashnikov fires. JSQM workers gunned down a worker of Shahi Syed and injured two the very next day near Rabia City as a mark of revenge. In the next twenty four hours a bloody game of firepower started in Shah Faisal Colony, Old Vegetable Market and other parts of Karachi. When the head count began to increase, the intermediaries from both sides arranged a meeting between Shahi Syed and JSQM. It transpired that when the news of hoisting the flag reached Shahi Syed, he thought that JSQM workers wanted to capture his office in Rabia City. This misgiving claimed ten lives on both sides. This is how target killing spreads in Karachi through rumor and distrust.
Likewise in October 2009 workers of *Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STTP) forcefully occupied flat in Iqra City Apartments, situated on Abul Hassan Isfahani Road, Sohrab Goth, an area under the control of Shahi Syed. STTP workers opened their party office in the flat and for this crime they were done to death. This resulted in a series of target killings between ANP and STPP that brought Karachi to a halt. When Urdu speaking people started making homes in Surjani, an area of Gadap Town that is a Pashtoon area, they were stopped forcefully. The law-enforcing agencies controlled the situation by making temporary camps there because it was still General Musharraf government. But ever since 2008 seldom a day passes when two or three people are not killed because if the growth of Urdu speaking people is not checked, it would evolve into an electoral area soon. It is because of this that news is splashed on TV screens almost daily about killings in Surjani.
Today more than 90 people have been killed in Karachi just as 510 people were killed in 2009. According to official figures 334 belonged to MQM and the remaining 266 were from PPP, ANP, Sunni Tehrik, JSQM, *Jamat-e-Islami, Haqiqi, *Lyari Peoples Aman Committee, banned *Sipah-e-Sahaba, and the Shiites. Police and government agencies are well aware that the Haqiqi splinter groups under Amir Khan and Afaq Ahmed are also killing workers of each other. The fact that the Haqiqi group that has been given the task to kill MQM workers and voters are living in Sher Pao Colony Landhi under the patronage of Shahi Syed must be in Police records.
Many give “expert opinion” about the unrestrained violence and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi but no attempt is made to inform about the underlying cause about the deaths of more than 1200 people in Karachi in during 2009-2010. I have presented the details of killings in Rabia City, Iqra City and Surjani Town with a moral courage – the facts that can be verified from police records.
Eight people belonging to MQM and ANP, fell victim to the target killing of unknown assailants on 31st January in Orangi Town and *Qasba Aligarh. It was for the first time that instead of blaming each other the two parties held a third party responsible for it before media. ANP had said, “Those who are targeting MQM’s people are also killing Pakhtoons in Orangi and Qasba Aligarh.” This statement of ANP is on record. Now this has to be seen as to who these people are and which party they belong to? And workers of Shahi Syed and Amin Khattak have joined this group on whose instruction? Are they getting instructions from Bilour brothers or from Haji Adeel? The Bilours are big industrialists, traders, importers and exporters and it is necessary to make one felt in order to get a share from an economic hub like Karachi and to bargain according to one’s own wishes.
In order to find the missing links behind unilateral statement by Minister for State Nabil Gabol and the emergency press conference called by Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza soon after the slaughter of 13 people of MQM in Sher Shah Market on 19th October, one has to go back to the death of Rehman Dakait in a police encounter. Zulfiqar Mirza who is husband of Speaker of National Assembly Fehmida Mirza was a dear friend of Rehman Dakait, the uncrowned king of Lyari. It is said that Rehman Dakait operation was done by keeping Zulfiqar Mirza uninformed. According to Mirza the police officers who conducted the operation had their sympathies with MQM. This is the point where the wave of target killings in Karachi starts. Cases against Afaq Ahmed and Amir Khan whose factions are against MQM were swiftly withdrawn. The alacrity with which the cases were withdrawn can be judged from the fact that they were granted bails even in murder cases in a matter of few months. In his zeal Zulfiqar Mirza once remarked “It is my heart’s desire to hang MQM people upside down.”
In the same days MQM’s opposition to *Nizam-e-Adl in Swat proposed by ANP and PPP and later MQM’s decision to oppose NRO heightened animosities between Federal Government and MQM to such an extent that PPP MNA from Lyari constituency NA – 248 and Minister of State for Ports and Shipping said that he would not work with the Babar Ghouri, the Federal Minister of his department. Nabil Gabol was asked to wait but target killings were started in the city particularly in Layari by joining hands with the militant wing of Haqiqi.
Now on the hand is MQM and on the other side is Lyari gang war whose nomenclature has been changed to Layari Peoples Aman Committee. Amir Khan Group and Shahi Syed have joined forces that are evident from the fact that demonstration by Amir Khan Group at Press Club was largely attended by PPP and Layari gang war. Their faces can be easily identified on camera.
Now what is happening is that *Haqiqi elements who were formerly in MQM and who know each other well are pointing MQM workers. Since they are well aware of their houses and work place they point them out and they are kidnapped on their way. It is because of this that gunny sacks containing mutilated bodies are once again being found in the city. Everybody would have heard the news on TV about the kidnapping of four MQM workers after a police encounter. A similar incident happened on 7th January when Amir, an important worker of MQM was beheaded. His head was thrown in Kalakot of Layari area and his body was dumped in Pak Colony of Site Area. Media, Police and Administration knows it well that these areas are under the control of Layari gang war and no one can enter there without seeking their permission. When MQM protested on this gory murder, 10 people fell down in incidents of firing from both sides.
Questions arise in the mind as to why this war started in Layari. I have mentioned earlier about the killing of Rehman Dakait, the *Nizam-e-Adl Ordinance and NRO that has badly weakened PPP. PPP leadership maintains that MQM did all this at the behest of the Establishment. The other reason is to cut MQM to size in the coming Local Government Elections. Do they want to bring another constituency of Layari NA – 249 under their control from where MQM’s Dr. Farooq Sattar has defeated with relatively thin margin. While I am writing this article news has been broken by TV channels that a grand operation was imminent in more than nine sectors of Karachi in next 24 hours. I do not know what will happen in this operation but if someone has listened to Sharmila Farooqi and ANP’s Bushra talking on a private TV channel then the intentions of PPP can be seen clearly written on the wall. Will the operation by Zulfiqar Mirza remain confine to Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Pahalwan Goth, Rabia City, Sohrab Goth and New Karachi? If the story of 1992 and 1995 is re-enacted then the results may be according to the wishes of a few individuals but certainly they will not be in the interest of Pakistan.
Foot Notes:
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Urdu: متحدہ قومی موومنٹ, English: United National Movement) generally known as MQM, is the third largest political party [4] and the largest liberal political party of Pakistan.[5] It is generally known as a party which holds immense mobilizing potential in province of Sindh.[6] The student organization, All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO), was founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain which subsequently gave birth to the Muhajir Quami Movement in 1984.[7] The organization maintains liberal, progressive and secular stances on many political and social issues.
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Sindhi: جيئي سنڌ قومي محاذ, JSQM) is a political party of Sindh that believes in the liberation of Sindh, an ideology of a free Sindhudesh by a veteran Sindhi politician and scholar Sain G M Syed who died on 25 April 1995 in an elderly age at a hospital in Karachi that was declared a sub-jail for him by the federation of Pakistan.[1]
The Awami National Party (ANP) is a political party in Pakistan. Its main area of electoral influence is in the Pashtun dominated areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh provinces of Pakistan.
Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP) (Urdu: سندھ ترقی پسند پارٹی ) formally called Jeay Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, is a political party in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Dr. Qadir Magsi is the chairman of Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party.
The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (English: Order of Justice) was a controversial act, passed on April 13, 2009, of Pakistan's central government that formally established Sharia law in the Malakand division.[
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Deobandi militant organization, and a formerly registered Pakistani political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi primarily to deter major Shia influence in Pakistan in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.[1][2] Formerly known as Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Army of the Friends of the Prophet, the organization was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 as a terrorist organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.[1][2]
Lyari Aman Committee also known as Peoples Amn Committee formed by Pakistan Peoples party (PPP)
The Jamaat-e-Islami [1] (Urdu: جماعتِ اسلامی, Jamaat-i-Islami, "Islamic Party" Jamaat, JI) is a Muslim religious and political party in Pakistan. It was founded on 26 August 1941 in Lahore by Muslim theologian Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi.[2] And is the oldest religious party in Pakistan.[2]