The downward spiral: FC not in sight, four more people killed

MQM worker and three other people turn up dead as Rangers search desperately for killers.

KARACHI:

There was no sign of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) on the streets as four more people were killed across the city on Wednesday.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the chief minister decided that the FC would be given police powers and stationed in Karachi, on Tuesday but they have yet to be deployed in the city’s worst-affected areas. Meanwhile, the Rangers surveyed troubled areas aerially and apprehended over two dozen suspects when they swept Orangi in an overnight search operation. More are expected to follow.

About 2,000 Rangers and a number of policewomen searched parts of Orangi Town, including Qasba Colony, Qazzafi Chowk, Bukhari Colony, Katti Pahari, Aligarh Colony and Gulfamabad, for three hours. No one was allowed in or out during the operation and several people were taken away for questioning in the door-to-door search that angered residents. A score of women protested against the operation, complaining that their loved ones were being killed and then their innocent family members are being arrested during search operations.

A Rangers’ spokesman told The Express Tribune that they had found weapons during the operation but refused to disclose the number of people who had been detained as an investigation was under way.

Across the city, the Rangers have swelled in number while snap checking has also increased with several makeshift pickets being set up in areas such as Orangi, Banaras, Manghopir, Surjani, New Karachi, Shah Faisal, Landhi, Abul Hassan Isphani Road, Quaid-e-Azam Colony, Quaidabad, Old Sabzi Mandi, Hassan Square, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

On Wednesday, the body of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker Abid Baig, 22, was found at Ghazi Nagar, Usmanabad in Garden police precincts. The police said that the victim had been kidnapped and his ears cut off.

Baig was from the Old City area and was associated with MQM Unit-32.

Another unidentified man was shot twice and dumped in a garbage drum in Jamshed Quarter on New MA Jinnah Road while two bodies were found near Salar Compound, Bhimpura, in Napier police limits. The pair had apparently been kidnapped, tied up, beaten and killed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2011.