The killing fields

On the night of February 15, 25-year-old Baloch bridegroom Abdul Majid, who worked as a mechanic in the UAE at his elder brother’s workshop, was shot dead as his baraat made its way to the bride’s house in Old Golimar.

Apart from Majid, four others – including a three year old - were shot and critically injured by men, who appeared on foot, out of the dark streets of the area and calmly carried out their dark deed with calm. One of the victims later recalled that the gunman who shot him also identified himself, giving his name and that of the gang he belonged to.

Abdul Majid died on the spot. The others fight for their lives at Civil Hospital, Karachi. The attack was precipitated by Abdul Majid’s refusal to give bhatta. This issue, three years old now, started over a parchi given by one of the gangster groups that is aligned with an officially patronized “committee”. The group had told the association of residents of the apartment block in Garden East that they would have to pay more in protection money because unlike the other apartments in the area, theirs had a cell-phone tower.

It is a tragic tale. Three years ago, Majid’s elder brother Abdul Rashid, was also shot by gangsters from the area. The issue was the same. They wanted money and this upright citizen refused to oblige. He was killed to set an example to others. The killings continue for anyone who challenges the gangsters.

This is the legacy of the Pakistan Peoples Party government under the inept and corrupt administration of Qaim Ali Shah, long-term chief minister (for a second time) in the province and also home minister of late. What is more worrisome here is that the killing of Abdul Majid is nothing out of the ordinary now in Karachi. Thousands of people are given parchis by gangsters and hundreds die to set an example to others.

When the police were contacted by the media for their version on Majid’s killing, they said that the attackers arrived in a truck (which is not true) and that the victim was part of a rival gang (again, a lie). The police insist even today that the groom was part of a gang and that he was involved in the killing of others and this was a retaliatory action. By saying so, the police are able to justify the death of Abdul Majid, who was in the UAE working as a mechanic at the time the police claim he was an active gang member.

This is the way our police justifies the deaths of hundreds of people in targeted killings in the city. One wonders how many more innocent people who were killed in bhatta-related attacks have been called gangsters by the police. This is the bigger tragedy.

Ironically, the worst affected are those areas that are the strongholds of the PPP. Lyari and Golimar are now considered to be out of bounds for the law enforcers. But the gangsters have now come out into the main city areas of Karachi. Of the high-profile cases, the former head of the Karachi Electronic Dealers Association, Muhammad Irfan, also known as “Shahji”, was killed by “unidentified gunmen.”

In one incident at the Shershah scrap market , twelve traders were killed by gangsters for not paying bhatta. At the time of the incident, much hue and cry was made with interior minister Rehman Malik, who used it as a publicity stunt by riding in the back of a police van. He promised that the killers would be arrested within days. It never happened. These are only two cases. Every day, at least ten people in Karachi die in targeted killings. Many of these are bhatta-related murders.

When will this end? Like the Hazaras of Balochistan, it seems that the businessmen of Karachi have decided to surrender to the gangsters more so because there is the perception that these men have official patronage. After the police, which in Karachi collects the largest amount of bhatta and has been doing this for decades, the gangsters are the next biggest collectors. How long will we pay this price?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2013.