Movement unabated in Karachi sealed areas

City commissioner claims smart lockdown has been implemented in its true letter and spirit

KARACHI: The local administration appears, by and large, to have failed to enforce the smart lockdown in areas identified as coronavirus hotspots in Karachi.

The lockdown was brought into place on Thursday evening, with the identified localities to be sealed for two weeks, but the very next day, shops remained open in most of these areas. While some police officials were witnessed asking for the identity cards of those entering and leaving the sealed areas and officials remained deployed at pickets besides patrolling coronavirus hotspots, few did anything to restrict the movement of citizens in many localities.

However, with reports of authorities failing to enforce the lockdown, a confrontation on the matter between citizens and police escalated to a clash in Lyari on Friday night.

"Everything in my neighbourhood is open," a resident of Gulistan-e-Johar told The Express Tribune. Though admitting that some streets in the locality had been sealed, he said there was no restriction on the movement if citizens.

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Similarly, a resident of Teen Hatti said that the situation was like that on any other Friday after the lockdown was first imposed in the province. "Only shops remained closed but I have been moving freely from one area to another without any check. No one asks for my identity card," he said.

Sultan Adam from Bihar Colony, too, said that all shops remained open not just in his neighbourhood but also in in nearby Agra Taj Colony.

"And the situation was the same in Lea Market, Saddar and in some parts of Korangi where I went," he added. He said that he saw minimal difference in the situation on the streets as compared to last week, when there was no lockdown.

"It is as if there is no lockdown," he observed, adding, however, that streets in Sarafa Bazaar and Kharadar were completely sealed. "The lockdown here in Bihar Colony needs to be of the same kind [as Sarafa Bazaar and Kharadar]," he insisted.

Makhdoom Bilawal, a resident of Korangi, said that he was trying to make sense of the term 'smart lockdown' as some shops remained open in the area while residents showed no fear of police or authorities.

According to Muhammad Usman, who lives in Mawach Goth, only a few streets in Naval Colony in the area had been sealed but there had been no restrictions imposed elsewhere. He added that the situation was the same in Saeedabad and most other areas that were identified as virus hotspots and supposedly sealed.

"But it is still Friday and we might have to wait until Saturday to see how things actually play out," he added.

On the other hand, Karachi commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani said that all areas identified as Covid-19 hotspots had been sealed and the smart lockdown was being properly enforced. The commissioner claimed that his subordinates had implemented the lockdown orders in their true letter and spirit, while denying that citizens were being allowed to move freely in the sealed areas.

Clash in Lyari

Meanwhile, a clash erupted after citizens resisted police’s instructions to shut shops on Juma Baloch Road and Hangoraabad Raod, in the limits of Lyari’s Union Council (UC) 2 on Friday night. As a result, police baton-charged the shopkeepers, forcing them to shutter their shops. Some shopkeepers were also detained by the police, but were later released.

Though the police and Rangers have sealed all areas between Hangoraabad Road in UC-2 and Agra Taj Colony in UC-1, citizens have resisted the move, claiming that neither had any of the residents living in the area tested positive for Covid-19, nor had any virus-related deaths been reported there.

They further maintained that the list of virus hotspots released by Shallwani’s office did not include UC-2 and only mentioned UC-1 and UC-9 of Lyari.