Statistics don’t always tell the full story

Early last week the chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, a look of splendid imperturbability on his face, made the startling disclosure that crime in Karachi had dropped by around 40 per cent and killings had been reduced by 23 per cent. . A few poor sods must have burned the midnight oil to arrive at this figure. It is not my purpose to rebuff the statement or to question the data which might have reflected a marked drop in cell phone snatching and burglaries due to increased vigilance by the police and Rangers. However, statistics don’t always tell the full story, for the very next day after the chief minister was wallowing in the accolades that poured in, four unidentified gunmen from a militant group which referred to itself as “the lions of the Islamic State” and “falcons of the caliph” fired at and wounded an unarmed 55-year-old Californian-born American vice-principal of a medical and dental college named Debra Lobo, as she left the college premises on Shaheed-e-Millat Road. That is not all. Earlier in the day, we learned that the Station House Officer of Preedy Police Station, Aijaz Khwaja, had been gunned down in Akhtar Colony and succumbed to his injuries in hospital. And the day after that, gunmen attacked and killed Masood Hamid, the marketing director of the Herald Group of newspapers.



The motive given for the shooting of the American woman was “in revenge for the killing of militants in the encounter that took place in Keamari”. I have never heard of anything as ridiculous, outlandish and unreasonable as Revenge Killing. It happens all the time… everywhere. If the militants want revenge they should try to take out the chaps who activate the drones that target suspected militants in North Waziristan; and not some middle-aged foreign medical practitioner who had devoted her life to the care of the sick; unless they suspected her of moonlighting — which is even more ridiculous.

A lot of this convoluted twaddle goes on not just in India and Pakistan but in other countries where rivalries and grudges have polluted the political atmosphere for generations. A few Muslims are killed in a riot in northern India; so a few Hindus have to be put out of their misery somewhere in Pakistan. An American Christian leader utters a few nasty remarks about Muslims so a bomb has to be detonated outside a church in Karachi and a few Christians have to be ferried across the River Styx. The logic behind Revenge Killing is there is certain homogeneity in the composition of the people of a country that makes them think as one voice. This is true in Pakistan when the country is at war or if the national cricket team is playing, even it is for third place. This is certainly true of Israel, where at the time of elections the politicians are at each other’s throats, but when they see a threat to their country, however small, they speak and act as one people. Judging by past experience, I don’t seriously believe that the authorities will ever find out the identity of the culprits in the attacks made under the umbrella of Revenge Killing.

Debra Lobo, Ejaz Khwaja and Masood Hamid were at the wrong place at the wrong time and in the wrong country. Only their families will pray for the two who died. The government won’t. Some of them are busy pandering to the Saudis; some are busy devising ways and means of spying on citizens and depriving them of internet privacy. Some are thinking of introducing Chinese in schools. Investigating killings is no longer a priority.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2015.

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