The killing fields of Karachi

July 6 saw at least 25 people die in Karachi as a result of target killing, bringing the two-day toll to 33, writing another bloody chapter in the sad history of the city. (By the evening of July 7 when this was written, the figure had climbed to over 60). Law-enforcement agencies still keep mum about who is behind the killings because both the killers and the killed belong to political and religious parties treated as legitimate players in national politics. What galls the peaceful citizen is that those killed and maimed are not all politically engaged victims but also innocent citizens, as seems to be the case in a horrific incident in Orangi Town when a minibus was chased by men on motorcycles and five passengers were killed. Out of the 1,138 victims of target killings this year so far, only 490 were politically engaged. This is what the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says and this should become the grounds for taking drastic non-partisan action in Karachi.

The latest mayhem started when an ANP leader was killed in Orangi. Yet there are other killers in the city too and we have to call them that despite protests that might come from politico-religious parties accusing one another of terror and thus rendering their innocence suspect. After all, what does one say about those who are responsible for the deaths of over a dozen innocent people as three buses full of commuters came under attack from unidentified gunmen on the evening of July 7, except to call them cold-blooded killers, furthering a nefarious agenda of creating anarchy in the country's largest city.

According to the HRCP, 77 victims this year belonged to MQM; 26 to the PPP; 29 to the ANP; 16 to the MQM-Haqiqi; seven to the Sunni Tehreek; nine to the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat; two to the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam; one to the PML-N; one to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI); one each to the PML-F, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, the Punjabi-Pakhtun Ittehad and four to the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP). Over the same period last year, the MQM-H lost 34 of its members, followed by the MQM, which lost 22. This year, after the Haqiqi faction has smoked the peace pipe with MQM leader Altaf Hussain, their casualties are almost down to zero or are being counted among the general MQM dead which are more than the ANP, its main rival. There are killers aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, killing according to orders from North Waziristan where the plotters against Karachi’s fate enjoy the dubious reputation of being Pakistan’s ‘assets’ against America.

For instance, the SSP is freely distributing literature against the Shia population. In response to this, we see the SSP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members dying as a quid pro quo. Add to this the Barelvi revivalist Sunni Tehreek, which seems to be in perpetual turf war with the Deobandi presence in the city.

Tragically, one expects more of the same in the coming days. The MQM has left the coalition in Sindh and gone and sat on the opposition benches while Governor of Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan has resigned his office. This time, when Interior Minister Rehman Malik goes to Karachi to do his usual bit of — in this case, perhaps, futile — firefighting, he is not going to be welcomed as warmly by the MQM leaders. The forced handshake with the ANP will also evaporate.

In the past, the army would have perhaps been called in to take over the job of restoring normality. But the past also showed that that was no real solution because once the military left, the violence resumed, perhaps with even greater vigour. Maybe the only thing that can realistically reduce the violence is if the parties with a stake in Karachi own up to their responsibilities, weed out the black sheep in their ranks, cut down on the hate speech against those from other ethnic groups and/or rival parties and rein in their more trigger-happy cadres. They should accept the fact that all communities are here to stay and that killing each other will not achieve anything and will make the city even more unliveable, which in the long run goes against the interests of the parties themselves. Furthermore, the police must be allowed to catch target killers regardless of political affiliation.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2011.