Flexing muscles: Lyariites defy blockades to reach Rangers HQ

Hundreds of residents took out a rally to protest against extrajudicial killings by the paramilitary force.

KARACHI:

Scores of Lyari residents defied several police blockades and successfully staged a sit-in for more than an hour outside the office of Rangers director general to voice their anger against extrajudicial killings and raids by the paramilitary force in different areas of Lyari. 

The rally was organised in reaction to the killing of Saqib Boxer, who was shot dead during an alleged encounter by the Rangers in Nayyabad, Lyari. This proved to be a tipping point for the residents who decided to take to the streets and register their protest. The participants gathered at the Football Stadium in Lyari around 3pm, crossed the Mauripur Road and passed through the Native Jetty Bridge and I.I.Chundrigar Road before reaching their destination. The rally was led by Pakistan Peoples Party MPAs Sania Naz and Javed Nagori. Carrying banners of the slain boxer, the protesters, including women and children, demanded judicial inquiry of the ‘fake encounter’ and demanded immediate removal of Rangers DG, Rizwan Akhter. “They pick up youngsters from our area and return their dead bodies,” they alleged.



The situation was a stark contrast to April 2012 when the area residents had bitterly criticised the police operation at Cheel Chowk and promised not to resist raids if carried out by the Rangers.

Earlier, the police tried to block the rally by placing containers on the ICI Bridge but angry youth removed them and marched towards the Rangers headquarters. The police again tried to obstruct the rally near Shaheen Complex and a showdown was feared between the protesters and the law enforcement agencies. But the police backed down when the angry participants refused to give in. Furthermore, Naz, Nagori and leader of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee, Zafar Baloch, assured the police and district South officials that they only intend to handover a memorandum to the Rangers officials.

The district South deputy commissioner, Jamal Mustafa Qazi, tried to persuade the protesters to end the sit-in as it had caused a massive traffic jam in the city. It was only when PPP Karachi president Qadir Patel arrived that talks bore fruit. Patel and Senator Yousuf Baloch handed over the memorandum to Qazi and asked him to ensure that operation and killings would be avoided in the future.

“We are true patriots but we disapprove of partial raids,” Baloch told Qazi. “We welcome Rangers operations in Lyari but they should not be restricted to our area alone.”

Patel later briefed the media and said that the people of Lyari were being killed over nothing. “It is the responsibility of the Rangers to handover the men arrested to the police. Boxer’s murder was an extrajudicial killing.”

He said that wanted men like Agha Hasan, Gul aka Gulu, Ishtiaq, Akhtar Baba and Ajmal Pahari were handedover to the police but a boxer of international repute was killed over alleged involvement in minor offences.

Admin fails to announce alternate routes for commuters

Traffic in the city came to a near standstill on Monday as some of the major arteries, including Mauripur Road, I.I Chundrigar Road and Ziauddin Ahmed Road, were blocked due to the rally. The blockade had a spillover effect as thousands of motorists found themselves stuck in the gridlock for hours on end. The jam also affected the functioning of hospitals located in the vicinity, which include Civil Hospital Karachi and Jinnah Hospital.

The administration failed to announce alternate routes for commuters despite the fact that the rally was announced on Sunday. The police and traffic police seemed to be in complete disarray as they even blocked the Mai Kolachi road even though the rally was not supposed to pass from there.  Policemen deputed to manage the situation could be seen telling the commuters to go back instead of guiding them towards roads unaffected by the rally.

The DIG Traffic could not be reached for his comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2013.