KARACHI/ISLAMABAD:
Commas were sharpened at the Presidency and provincial chiefs talked behind closed doors at the Governor House while traumatised residents remained confined to their homes on Saturday, wondering if the worst was over.
As high-level meetings simultaneously progressed here and in Islamabad, the current tide of violence appeared to peter out, with at least ten people killed in Karachi on Saturday. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies claimed to have arrested high-value target killers.
Four successive days of violence have claimed over 75 lives and left scores wounded.
Intense parleys
In an effort to stem the tide of violence, the federal government is considering significant administrative changes at the highest level in Sindh government to restore normalcy, sources said.
While Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and provincial Home Minister Manzoor Wassan met with Governor Ishratul Ebad at his house in Karachi, a parallel meeting progressed in the Presidency on Saturday night, discussing the law and order situation in Karachi.
The negotiations at the Governor House, among other issues, focused on switching portfolios of ministers and transferring key provincial bureaucrats.
Meanwhile, President’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar rejected the talk of changes in Sindh government at the highest levels.
The meeting reviewed the progress of talks with different political parties in Sindh with a view to restore normalcy in Karachi, said a press release.
President Zardari directed Dr Zulfiqar Mirza to complete the party’s re-organisation in Sindh and deputed Khursheed Shah to lead negotiations with other political parties.
The meeting at the presidency, chaired by President Zardari, was attended by key ministers from the Sindh Cabinet.
Violence stems, army deployment
Violence appeared to peter out on Saturday with at least ten people killed, including an air force and a water and sewerage board official.
The city, however, remained on edge and various areas remained tense.
While the police and Rangers have been granted a free rein to take action against the miscreants, authorities were unable to conduct an operation against Lyari’s gangs and tried to restore peace by negotiating with them instead.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that militants wanted to destabilise Karachi by engaging the army in the city so they could regroup along Pakistan’s western border.
“Still, the government will consider deploying the army in Karachi if industrialists convince the high-command committee, which will soon meet the business community of Karachi to discuss the security situation,” he said while talking to industrialists on Saturday.
(Read: Industrialists call on army to save Karachi)
‘High-value’ suspects in custody
In an overnight operation, the police detained four suspects from Jinnah Hospital, following a brazen attack on a reserve police force bus that claimed five policemen and injured dozens.
The injured suspects are allegedly affiliated with groups fighting in Chakra Goth, sources said.
The suspects are believed to be the high-profile criminals, said an official.
Despite the deployment of police, Chakra Goth and its surrounding areas, where a group of around 25 armed men attacked a bus carrying at least 40 personnel of the Sindh Reserve Police late Friday night, remained tense on Saturday.
A case against the bus attack was registered late Saturday night at the Zaman Town police station.
‘Conspiracy or negligence’
Calling policemen from rural Sindh and sending them without their uniforms in affected areas on a passenger bus has raised several questions, said a senior police official.
There are several elite force commandos present in the city, he said. Why were they not utilised by the authorities? he asked.
Terming the incident as ‘either a conspiracy or a major negligence,’ the official called for a probe into the incident.
There was good coordination between the local police and the groups involved in the clashes in the area, he said, conjecturing that consequently, a third party is responsible for the bus attack.
Meanwhile, hospital authorities said that of the injured, two policemen were in critical condition while the rest are stable and would soon be discharged.
Funerals, compensation
Funeral prayers of three policemen, identified as Mehrab Ali, Wazeer Ali and Ali Abbas from Qambar Shahdadkot and Naushero Feroz, killed in the Friday attack, were offered at Garden Police Headquarter.
Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan announced a compensation of Rs2 million for the deceased policemen, Rs0.2 million for the injured and Rs 0.1 million for those sustaining minor injuries.
He said that around a 100 people involved in target killings, riots and arson have been arrested so far.
Bodies of the deceased policemen were sent to their hometowns for burial. With additional input from agencies.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2011.
COMMENTS (9)
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This is in continuation of my above posts. My distant cousin and a very good friend got killed in Korangi during these recent incidents. Please pray for the departed soul.
@ Sanam Naz... I am not a conservative person who believe in violence or support politics of power. I dont even want to mention my ethnic background or of my cousin who got killed because I know he was innocent and was not affiliated to any party. Neither I am going to blame any other ethnic group involved in these killings. I only consider it as the responsibility of our ruling government and affiliated parties to safeguard the lives of Pakistanis. Ask someone how they feels who have lost their brother, father or friend in these killings.! PERIOD
@ Sanam Naz
By "ONE Party dominated area", my emphasis was on 'bus/coach route' which I highlighted above. If someone is killed then I dont even question whether he was a sindhi, muhajir, punjabi aur pakhtoon because they all are our brothers and people of our own country. even i dont really question if someone gets killed in any other part of the world because they are humans first and then their religion comes and all of them are Allah's creature. so this mindset does not belong to our religion altogether.
May be you read this statement out of context and misunderstood. I highlighted (or at least I tried to) the blunder or basic security lapse and did not defend those shooters. PEACE
“ONE PARTY dominated area” - So they are licensed to kill if they find any body belonging to Sindhi segment crossing from the dominated (occupied) area of any other community. What an irrational thinking/mindset! That mindset at least does not belong to Sindh; a land of peaceful people dates back to 5000 years. Come out of blindness and bickering attitude on petty things. Politics of hatred, threats and blackmailing yield nothing but destruction every where around. Let us preach for coexistence rather than creating divisions in the entire society.
@Zohaib: Excellent view point
Vultures of so called political parties are fighting for controls of their respective ballot boxes. Shame on our two faced politicians.
This is weakest government ever. Party leader will do anything to be in presidency to kee his immunity. He knows that he will be tried by swis courts once immunity is over. This all drama is to cover corrupton. This is not politics this is pure greed
"......Calling policemen from rural Sindh and sending them without their uniforms in affected areas on a passenger bus has raised several questions, said a senior police official....."
finally someone had the guts and brain to raise this issue. As soon as i watched a video clip of this attack on "police bus" in korangi on late Friday night, the very first thought which caught my mind was "why these police commandos were being sent in a passenger coach?".
Now here is another interesting point of view which no one raised, or at least i didnt notice, the coach / bus in which these police commandos were being taken was of a different route, this was 'MARWAT COACH'. the bus route is from bhains colony and to "shershah". normally the passengers are labours working in SITE areas of karachi and usually pakhtoons travel in this coach (I am being unbiased about this whole incident but just giving my point of view).
Now if a bus route as defined above goes to a completely different area and that too in KORANGI on that night when violence was at its peak in that "ONE PARTY dominated area" from where police commandos were made to travel in civil uniform with amunitions in hand THEN only following thoughts will cross your mind:
i.e. On whose orders these policemen travelled in that bus? and on whose orders they were made to travel in civil uniforms? and also if any one carrying arms and amunitions in such numbers in civil uniform in a mini-bus then would you believe them the security officials or terrorist?
Those shooters might have mistaken and started firing on that bus considering those policemen as rival group. Had these policemen were travelling in police vans then this might not have happened but now our govt officials have given this attack a different perspective and no one has raised this point....
Ambulance and police vans travel with a "siren" to alert the passersby and people, thats the basic difference between a normal passenger vehicle and special emergency vehicle. if these policemen were not aware about this basic rules then they all should be interrogated and if they were aware and in spite of that they were made to travel then the concerned authorities should investigate.
Your title is "Violence peters out" and you say "violence stems" while 10 people were killed today? How can you write a headline like this, are ten people killed a normal day for you?