Continuing Lyari violence

Violence in Lyari is now so prevalent that it has become impossible to distinguish the different periods of bloodletting; one incident simply bleeds into the other. As an illustration, consider the month of April. On April 1, a member of the Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) was killed in an encounter with the police’s Anti-Extremist Cell, leading to a day of violence. Ten days later, PAC leaders were arrested in connection with the murder of a policeman, which was followed by two more days of killings. Then, on April 26, another policeman and a former deputy nazim of Lyari were killed. This has caused violence, with both sides indulging in their fair share of killings.

It is easy to blame the police for being trigger-happy, to denounce the PAC for using the word ‘peace’ cynically, since it was set up by a gangster with its members being armed to the teeth, and to criticise Karachi’s political parties for using violence to pursue their narrow agendas. While all this is true, it does little by way of proposing solutions. What we have learned is that police operations tend to do more harm than good, pitting the inhabitants of an area against those that are meant to protect them. Violence begets violence, especially in a city where there is no shortage of guns and blood feuds.

For political parties to disassociate themselves from the armed gangs that roam the city is the only way out. For example, everyone knows that the dominant political party in Lyari is the PPP. When Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was convicted by the Supreme Court in the contempt case, protests sprung up in the area. Thus, the PPP should realise (if it has not already) that it is responsible for restoring peace in the area. This means ordering its members to have nothing to do with the likes of the PAC. The same principle applies to the MQM and the ANP. Only when Karachi’s politicians can go about their businesses without having gangsters and guns involved, will there be peace in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2012.