Blast at a gambling den

It is hard to know where to place the blame for the blast that killed 19 people at a gambling den in Lyari. Was it, as a senior officer of the Sindh Police’s Criminal Investigation Department claimed, the result of a fight among the gamblers? Or could it be merely the latest round in Lyari’s long-running gang war? At this time, it is also not possible to rule out the fact, especially given the target, that religious militants were behind the blast. If indeed the police officer is correct in his hunch, then this attack can be written off as a one-off incident. Certainly, the police can be blamed for the fact that this gambling den was still operational even though it had been raided and shut down a few months ago.

It is the other two possibilities that are far more frightening. Of the two, it is far more likely that this attack was a fight over turf between rival gangs. Just this month, the Lyari Town office of the City District Government Karachi was attacked with a hand grenade while workers of political parties have been murdered in a round of target killings. Even though the Rangers have carried out raids in Lyari, as yet there have been no significant arrests and the raids seem more like a show of force than an action meant to yield results. The Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department has been operating in Lyari for some years, but with precious little visible success beyond the arrest of a gangster from the Arshad Pappu gang, last month. Also, the massacre at a scrap market in which 13 people were killed happened not too far from this neighbourhood and its gangs were accused by some of involvement.

Lyari has never been known as a hotbed of religious fundamentalism so it is unlikely that the Taliban or its associates were behind the attack. For now, it is wiser to concentrate on the criminal gangs operating in Lyari. The problem here is that the biggest gangs have the support and protection of various political parties, all of whom are loath to give this support up. In return for their political patronage, these gangs can act as enforcers for political parties in Lyari. As long as this relationship lasts, violence in Lyari will continue unabated.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.