Anti-weapons group demands ban on aerial firing

Citizens Against Weapons blames home dept for recent death, injuries after Pakistan-India cricket match

KARACHI: Citizens Against Weapons, a group that actively campaigns against arms in society, has written a letter to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, demanding action against home department officials for failing to ban aerial firing.

The letter was sent on June 21, after a 15-year-old boy, Syed Hussain Raza Zaidi, was killed and several others were injured on Sunday after widespread aerial firing in celebration of Pakistan's defeat of India in the ICC Champions Trophy, 2017 final.

Citizens Against Weapons is a group of civil society activists who believe in complete removal of weapons from society. According to the group, weapons should only be carried by law enforcement agencies.



The letter blamed the home department officials for the recent death and injuries due to aerial firing. The home department is responsible for the incident as it distributed a large number of arms licenses among citizens, the letter claimed.

The city has suffered casualties due to aerial firing before as well. Last New Year's Eve, six-year-old Subhan died after a stray bullet hit him, while a seven-year-old girl, Afta, was seriously wounded.

A member of Citizens Against Weapons, Naeem Sadiq, pointed out that deaths due to aerial firing are deaths of the less-privileged at the hands of elites, as no poor family an obtains arms licence. Arms licences are only obtained by those who can afford them, he said.



"It is never the children of ministers, secretaries or parliamentarians who die in this insane exhibition of delight. The government remains completely callous and disinterested in controlling the proliferation of guns and stopping the barbaric practice of 'killing for joy'," Sadiq lamented.

He said that civilised countries do not allow celebratory gunfire as it may lead to random deaths and injuries. We should learn from the gun laws in the United Kingdom, which ruled us for a long time, he said, adding that even in the recent attacks in London, no gun was used, which depicts how strict their guns laws are.

Sadiq stressed the need for changing the mind-set of the elites, besides implementation of the law. Affluent gun-owners engage in indiscriminate firing on birthdays of their children, weddings and occasions such as the sighting of new moon, he said.



He added that implementation of the existing laws is enough to control such incidents in the future but the government seems reluctant to take any measure to implement those laws.

Quoting Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) officials, Sadiq said every year, more than a dozen injured people are brought to the emergency ward on New Year's Eve, Independence Day or the day before Eid.

The signatories of the letter include Azeez Allahwala, Rumana Hussain, Asad Kizilbash, Sheema Kermani, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, Sadiq and Sikander Bizenjo.