Deploying a paramilitary force may end up exacerbating the ethnic tensions in the city.
KARACHI: Interior Minister Rehman Malik should reconsider his decision to deploy FC (Frontier Constabulary) personnel in Karachi. The reason for this is pure and simple given the current ground reality, which suggests that the MQM and the ANP are not exactly the best of friends these days. Deploying a paramilitary force which draws its jawans from Fata may not be a wise move and may end up exacerbating the ethnic tensions in the city. At the very least, the MQM might see this deployment as proof that the Sindh government is taking sides in the tussle with it and taking measures that can be called nothing but provocative.
It is pertinent to note that after the partition of India in August 1947, Hindu-Muslim riots erupted. The British officers who were still in command of the Indian army deployed a mix of army troops consisting of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Gurkhas and Marhatas in the volatile areas so that no one community could feel deliberately singled out.
Sqn-Ldr (retd) S Ausaf Husain
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2011.
