“The MQM has always said there should be action against the drug, arms, land mafias, extortionists and kidnapping for ransom gangs no matter what religion, area, sect, belief or people they are afffiliated with,” said the press release. “Anyone who speaks any language, is of any nation etc is our brother and fellow Pakistani.” The killings are being perpetrated to give the MQM a bad name, it added.
Nearly 1,000 people have lost their lives in target killings and violence since the start of this year. In the latest wave of blood-letting the authorities started to talk of an operation against criminal elements.
Lyari honours Baloch victims
In reaction to the recent killings, Quran khwani was held on Saturday in memory of the Baloch men who were gunned down last week. The ceremony was organised by the Lyari Peace Committee (LPC).
The committee also organised a rally. “We are here today to tell the world that we will not let anyotne rule the city and kill innocent people,” said Zafar Baloch of the LPC. He assured the families who had lost their men that the “blood of their sons would bring a revolution”.
The rally also condemned Sindh’s parliamentarians for recommending an operation in Lyari.
Baloch said that while the committee was not opposed to the idea of an operation being launched to arrest suspects involved in target killings, they were upset over the fact that Lyari was being singled out. “An operation should be launched against all the target killers across the city. Everyone knows who is killing whom,” he added. The people of Lyari would accept an operation that started from their town but ended in Azizabad, he said.
The women of the rally chanted slogans in favour of Benazir Bhutto, Zulfiqar Mirza and Sardar Abdur Rehman Baloch alias Rehman Dakait.
According to Baloch protesters, a particular ethnic group was not letting them work in other parts of the city.
“My 20-year-old son has been sitting at home for the last two weeks because the owner of the shop where he worked in Baldia had received a letter threatening him to either fire my son or face dire consequences,” said one of the participants in the rally.
“No one cares if Baloch are killed,” she said. “Thirty-five Baloch people were killed but that does not matter to anyone. If even a single member of some other community is killed they say destroy the people of Lyari,” she said, asking in a loud voice, “Is that fair?”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2010.
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