Karachi explosion

The tragic death of at least 13 persons in Karachi from an extended family, in what appears to be a truck explosion, is disturbing. Earlier reports, however, pointed out at the hurling of a grenade on the mini-truck which was on its way back after attending a family function in the thickly-populated area of Baldia Town. The incident, nonetheless, needs to be probed so as to ensure that there isn’t any act of sabotage. Citizens of Karachi had hardly heaved a sigh of relief from the decades-long fissures of terrorism and economic downslide. Thus every effort must be made to raise the bar of vigilance and root out unscrupulous elements.

The Baldia incident deserves some minute scrutiny. This is so because most of the family members were from the Swat valley of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Karachi’s multi-ethnic populated suburbs have a history of prejudice, and lingual otherness has dominated the political mosaic. Thus, at a time when the country’s economy is getting back on track and the law and order situation is quite satisfactory, it could be an act of revulsion to pitch people against each other on lingual grounds. At the same time, the sectarian angle cannot be brushed aside either. There is no dearth of people who are out to sow seeds of disgust at a time when unity is the need of the hour. The good point, however, is that Karachiites’ resilience is appreciative, and they come together at odds.

The provincial authorities, as a damage control exercise, should thoroughly probe the incident and compensate the heirs of the deceased, apart from providing the best of medical aid to the injured. But that is no solace. Karachi, the world’s eighth most populated city, doesn’t have a proper policing system to this day. Nor does it have an indigenous intelligence gathering mechanism. The law and order apparatus is quasi-structured between the federal and provincial authorities, and thus Karachi’s 25 million people are found in a hapless mode. Karachi has a serious governance problem too, and its civic infrastructure is in a mess. Incidents like Baldia, thus, inadvertently bring to the fore the reality that Karachi is a ticking population bomb, and there is an existential need for a fool-proof security module.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2021.

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