“The alarm bells had started ringing on May 11 when shipping containers and water tankers started appearing strategically around the Sindh High Court. The next morning judges had to use the walls to get in.
It was going to be a long, long day for the reporters as well.
9 am
A senior court reporter with an English daily newspaper reached the Sindh High Court with a colleague. Three white vehicles were parked at the main gate. Some youngsters present there told them to turn back as there was no work that day. “You can now go back home,” he quoted them as saying. He went to the other side of the court, which is called Judge’s gate and found the car of the chief justice of the Sindh High Court dented. Some people had attacked his car. “The chief justice had summoned the IG for protection, but the confused police chief showed reluctance, saying that the police alone could not control the situation,” he said.
10 am
TV reporter Mushtaq Sarki left home at 10am in Gulistan-e-Jauhar but when he reached Drigh Road, teenagers stopped him. “They threatened him by saying, ‘don’t go ahead’. I introduced myself and showed my press card, but they pulled out a gun.” He went back to Pehlwan Goth Chowrangi and thought it best to hitch a protective ride with the workers of another party. “But some men hiding in storm drain starting firing at them, killing Nawaz Kingrani of the Awami Tahreek,” he said. “As Nawaz was shot we ran to the police. The cops showed us the sticks in their hands and said they could not help us. They said, call 15. That man died.”
11am
According to Arbab Chandio who was working for Sindhi TV channel KTN, they came under fire near Malir where the office of the Sachal Rangers is located. Some political workers with flags were heading towards the airport when firing erupted from a rooftop. A Steel Mills official affiliated with the PML-N was killed. “My cameraman and I escaped and reached the gate of the Sachal Rangers but despite repeated requests, they did not open it. Some people were lying dead in the vehicle, which was burning because the fuel tank had leaked and a man in the car was crying for help.” After one hour, two Rangers jawans let them in.
1pm
The battle between political workers ensued at Baloch Colony Bridge on Shahrae Faisal near the office of Sindh TV. The channel broadcast how the suspects were loading guns and how others were supplying them ammunition to fire at processions going to the airport. “I was sitting in the office directing our reports in the field. Suddenly firing started when some [political] leaders were going to the airport,” said Akbar Jafferi, a senior reporter at the channel. “I have never ever seen such a brutal incident in my twenty years of field reporting,” he said. “The rescue workers were too frightened to come. The area was filled with the smell of gunfire.”
2pm
Urdu news channel Aaj TV came under attack when it started a live telecast of the unfolding events. Youngsters with party flags were firing at the Aaj office for about two hours.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2012.
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