Controlling crime in Karachi

As has been made clear in the bloodiest possible way Karachi remains a dangerous and deadly place to live and work — particularly if one works in the forces of law-and-order or is a member of a minority community. A spate of shootings has left a senior police officer and a member of the Ahmadiyya community dead and a Head Constable of the traffic police seriously injured. There is speculation that the motives are sectarian (probable) or retaliation against the police for doing their jobs (at the very least possible.) The shootings followed a familiar pattern — men on motorcycles who were clearly intelligence led as they knew where their victims were and their movements rode up, did their bloody work and rode off. The likelihood of their being found or prosecuted is remote. Much has been made of the reduction in crimes of this sort in Karachi and that is certainly true, but there is obviously more to do if violent crime is to be pegged back as well as reducing the ever-rising but little-reported street crime of a lesser nature.

With a new army chief to come into post within days now is the time for the PPP government and particularly the apex committee that is tasked to oversee the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to re-lens the Karachi Operation. Gains have been made, but sustaining them is now the challenge, as well as having the Rangers push the envelope of engagement yet further. There has been criticism of the Rangers in the past that they have been unduly heavy-handed and that is possible. The other side of the coin is that you do not fight what is to all intents and purposes a low-intensity urban war with one hand tied behind your back.

Subjectively Karachi feels safer than it was a year ago. How much safer is an open question, because objectively it is just a little safer going by the headline statistics — but a long way from being truly safe. A Karachi clean-up was never going to be pretty, but failing to do so is a still-uglier prospect. Get to it.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2016.

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