Stray arsenal
A devastating tragedy that led to the killing of, at least, nine people including children in district Jamshoro of Sindh owing to an explosive is an unpardonable crime. It is surprising that a rocket warhead was found abandoned in the dilapidated village and children took it as a toy to play with. Its bursting out in a congested area of Kandhkot has stirred many questions of revulsion, and those are literally in need of being answered. The rest is eyewash as the police and district administration try to fix the story to the advantage of their negligence, and hush it up in no time.
The calamity has some deep roots and it is all in the lawlessness of the Sindh province. Unfortunately, no attention has been paid in the last many decades for building the human and developmental profile of the backward province, and mushrooming of criminals, thugs and dacoits is a known omen. The gravity multiplies as the province is home to ‘katcha’ areas (riverine slums) where bandits and unscrupulous elements, including terrorists, rule the roost and are free to do whatever they feel at pleasure. Abductions, kidnapping for ransom, murder, vandalism and rape are common elements of this contaminated society, and the people are Sindh have no recourse but to live up with the menace.
These dreaded elements for quite some time are under the wrath as police and law-enforcement agencies have tried their best to exterminate them, but in vain. Apparently, the political patronage they enjoy helps them live in peace in the shadows. The fact that they are accessible to dreaded arsenal, especially the one smuggled across the borders from Afghanistan, Iran and from Oman via Gwadar and other Balochistan seashores has made life unpredictable in Sindh and its backward suburbs. Thus, the misfortune that visited Kandhkot is just the tip of the iceberg. Sindh is in need of a mopping operation and that too without any discrimination. It goes without saying that influential, political leaders, feudal lords and bureaucracy big-wigs are abettors behind the thriving of this armament and abduction culture. They must be taken out too.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2023.
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