In Karachi, being apolitical is the bloodiest

366 innocent men were shot dead just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

KARACHI:

The numbers are already higher so far this year and the worst trend is that men with no political affiliation are being shot dead in the hundreds just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The statistics were released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday for six months of killings in Karachi under 45 categories. The list reads like a horror story: killed by stray bullet, newborn baby dumped, dead body found...

The men with no political affiliations who were shot dead were mostly targeted because they were either sitting next to a political activist or were present at the crime scene where attackers opened fire. The number has risen from 301 in 2010 to 418 the next year and so far this year the toll has already topped 366.

Taranum Khan of the HRCP, who compiled the data from newspaper reports, gave the example of a seminary student who was shot dead when he went to the house of a religious party activist just to get some work done.

The deadliest month so far in 2012 has been April with a body count of 260.

“After the Supreme Court took sou motu action, there was a drop in killings, but the crime has surged again,” said HRCP Chairperson Zohra Yusuf, who sees the increase in violence as a failure of law enforcement.

There has been a change in patterns; political activists are being killed in drive-by shootings and Baloch men are being targeted. “What was the purpose of the Lyari operation when the criminals are roaming around free and the ordinary people were affected?” she asked. Around 92 were killed in Lyari since the beginning of 2012.

Yusuf felt that the violent atmosphere was created by political parties, but now criminals were taking advantage of it. “People have accepted violence and have become desensitised. They flip through violence stories in newspapers or on television. This is alarming for us all.”

Gunny bags

The HRCP’s Taranum Khan pointed out that more and more men are being abducted and killed and their bodies are being dumped across Karachi in gunny sacks.

So far this year, 160 victims were reported as kidnapped and killed and a majority of them were found in the sacks. Ghulam Hussain, who works at the Edhi morgue, told The Express Tribune that they are seeing more and more victims of torture. Previously the bodies would just have bullet wounds. “Just yesterday, the body of a fifty-year-old man was brought to us. It was in very bad shape.”

Political activists

The highest number of political workers killed in Karachi so far in 2012 belong to the city’s largest political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a member of the coalition government.

In June alone, the party lost 22 men out of the 28 activists killed across the city.

“I am a political activist but I won’t take up arms,” said MQM leader Faisal Subzwari. “But if the situation prevails, the citizens will react to it.” He complained that no killers had been arrested. When asked about the party’s reaction to the killings of its workers and whether it had been able to tackle the problem, Subzwari said that they had condemned all of the incidents.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2012.