Rangers to the rescue

In a shootout with the Rangers, Noor Muhammad alias Baba Ladla is no more

There is a tendency in Pakistan to mythologise — sanitise — some gangsters; the men that lead fellow criminals as they terrorise their way to the top of the pile in towns and cities across the country. Some of them control large swathes of predominantly poor neighbourhoods, and carefully nurture the lighter side of their criminal calling by acts of largesse. Communities offer them safe haven and protection and they are difficult to track down and topple from power. One such murderous monster has now died in a shootout with the Rangers, and Noor Muhammad, alias Baba Ladla is no more.

This is not the first time his death has been reported, as there were unreliable reports of his demise in May 2014 when he was reported killed by Iranian border guards, and again in August 2015 when another report also had him killed at the Iranian border. Neither proved to be true and it was a tip-off presumably from within the community where he sheltered, that precipitated his last encounter — about which there was nothing fake. The Rangers moved on the tip-off and started an operation in the Phool Patti Lane area of Lyari. He did not go quietly or cheaply, nor did the two associates who died with him in the gunfight. A head constable and a constable died in the line of duty.

It is no exaggeration to call Ladla a monster, and similarly monstrous were those that died alongside him. The tip-off may have come from somebody attracted by the Rs3 million bounty that the Sindh government had put on his head — or it may equally have been that the community had had enough. According to the police, Baba Ladla was wanted in 74 cases. He ran torture cells. Had carried out countless targeted killings and conducted an urban war against rival gangsters that left dozens dead over many years. He was a kidnapper and tortured at least one of his captives to death. Political connections also featured in his life and he was for a time a close associate of the proscribed People’s Amn Committee (PAC) led by Uzair Baloch; but the relationship soured and Baloch latterly condemned Ladla. Those that died with him had similar records and a stain has been wiped from the face of the city of Karachi.

Murdering gangsters are not heroes. They are a poisonous role model for those around them especially the younger generation — and in the absence of more appropriate role models it is not difficult to see why men such as Ladla rise to the top of the midden. As the scum rises so the efforts of the Rangers are eclipsed, and they become targets not only of bullets and grenades but of accusations of heavy-handedness and operating above the law. The firefight that saw the death of Ladla was no less vicious and deadly than that against a Taliban unit, Rangers casualties being testament to that. They fought a determined and well-armed enemy at close quarters and paid in blood — the real heroes of the day.

The Rangers are up against battle-hardened criminals that are often, as in this instance, on their home turf. They cannot be sure of community support if they go in, indeed might expect the reverse, but if Karachi — and elsewhere, vicious gangsters are not resident in Karachi alone — is ever to be cleansed of elements such as Ladla it is always going to be messy. That said the removal of men like these does not mean that the threat of gangsterism is removed. That can only come if the endemic problems of the areas they thrive in are addressed, and clean water supplies, mended roads and grassroots health services to say nothing of schools or even a police force that can be trusted — will form the warp and weft of a counter-narrative. For now — well done Rangers. More of the same please.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2017.

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