Fear and loathing

KARACHI: This is with reference to your article 'Fear and loathing in Gulistan-e-Jauhar' by Faryal Najeeb. The recent tide of violence that engulfed Karachi took the lives of over 90 people. Most of these were innocent labourers, bus drivers and conductors, daily wage earners, shopkeepers and chai-wallahs. They were brutally killed for no reason other than because of their ethnicity. My question is that was any of these 90 dead men the man who killed Raza Haider.

To the writer I would say one other thing as well. Please do not use the word ‘Pathan’ and instead use either ‘Pashtun’ or ‘Pakhtun’. ‘Pathan’ is considered a stereotype and an affront by many Pashtuns.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2010.