Thousands stranded as panic and fear fan out

Fear and violence spread across the city within hours of the MQM MPA's killing.

The killing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA may have taken place in Nazimabad, but by the time evening rolled around, fear and violence had spread in equal measures to the rest of the city.

The chief secretary said that all government and private schools will be closed today, Tuesday, and the MQM has announced three days of mourning but not a strike. More retaliatory violence is expected.

The first people to feel the fear were people returning home from work across the city as spooked bus drivers pulled their vehicles off the streets.

A commuter told The Express Tribune that most of the buses that take the Tariq Road route via Bahadarabad for Gulshan were instead taking the Dhoraji route. A resident of Gulshan said that the area near NIPA, a major bus intersection and thoroughfare, was shut down, with traffic vanishing from the roads and shops shuttering down.

Sixteen-year-old Maira, a resident of block 10, Gulshan-e-Iqbal said that she was in her apartment when she heard firing outside at around 6:30 pm. The next time she looked out of her window, she saw a bus on fire. “Later the Rangers and people managed to put out the fire,” she said.

Like other residents of apartments on main Rashid Minhas Road, Maira’s parents too moved their car to the parking area at the back of the buildings. Any vehicles left out on the road were sure to be pelted with stones or worse, set on fire.

Twenty-nine-year-old Saira Husaini was one of the many employees who faced trouble getting home from work. Two people from her office near the Karachi Press Club left work but decided to turn back when they saw two people get shot near the Metropole area. Till at least 9 pm, Saira and her co-workers were stranded in their office building.

According to Sana Kazmi, her friend saw a man firing near Punjab Chowrangi. She also mentioned several people trapped at Sharae Faisal because public transport refrained from heading in that direction.

Ahmed said his grandmother was headed to I I Chundrigar Road, where she got stuck in the traffic for around forty minutes.

“The halat are pretty bad in Gulshan. I could not get home because I heard gunshots every where on my way there,” said 28-year-old Salman. “I am going to spend the night at an uncle’s house now.”

People were also trapped in SITE. According to an employee at the ARY office, one of their peons was beaten near the Pepsi bridge and his motorcycle was burnt.

Two architects working at a firm in Clifton were trying to get back to KDA when their families called them to stay in Defence because they felt the roads were not safe enough for their children.

Meanwhile, Javed, who was supervising the reconstruction of a wall of a house in phase V, Defence, asked his employer if he could spend the night there. The resident of North Karachi said that he would be unable to get to his house since all public transport disappears from the roads in such situations.

A resident of North Nazimabad, Farzana, said, “I am worried about how my daughters will get home but not about their safety since Rehman Malik came on television and assured us that everything was under control.”

Hassan, a taxi-driver who lives in Nazimabad No 4, said he was planning to go to Seaview with his family when he received news of violence in the city. “I will not be able to take my taxi out tomorrow,” he said. “This area will be unsafe for at least three days, which means no money for three days.” According to Hassan, Nazimabad and Gulistan-e-Jauhar are the worst-affected areas in Karachi every time there is a clash between political parties.

Panic spread as far as Zamzama Boulevard. “While there was no tension in the area we were told to shut down our shops for safety reasons,” said a waiter at Butlers Café on main Zamzama.

An employee of Café Fresh said that he heard of trouble in Phase II, IV and Badr Commercial but not in Zamzama. However, his owner too gave orders to shut down the restaurant.

SP CliftonTariq Dharejo said that so far there hasn’t been any incident of firing or killing in any of the areas of Clifton and Defence. “People closed their shops on their own just to be safe,” he said. Police in several other areas, including upper Gizri, Qayyumabad basti and Defence West Point, have already intervened and shut down the areas to control any confrontations between the MQM and the ANP, he said.

According to the owner of a clothes shop in Zamzama, “A rumour spread quickly across the market that some people had come from Gizri and were creating trouble, I don’t know if this is true or false because most of us did not see the people but given the situation, none of us wanted to take a risk.”

He confirmed that the police had asked shop owners on Zamzama to shut down as they could not guarrantee their safety. “Some guy, who I have never seen in my life, came to my shop and told me to shut it - I don’t know if he was a plainclothes policeman - but he was pretty straight in his demand,” said one shop owner, adding that as far as he knew, none of them had plans to open Tuesday. “We will wait and see what happens,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2010.