Karachi Violence .. Updates & Discussion ..
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i am sorry but you are retarded .
---------- Post added at 01:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:54 PM ----------
KARACHI: Twenty-two people were killed overnight in Karachi as violence intensified in the wake of the killing of PPPs former MNA Waja Karim Daad Wednesday evening.
Reportedly, 19 bodies in gunny bags were recovered from different areas of Karachi.
The situation is still very tense in Lyari and other areas of southern Karachi with sporadic gunfire being echoed around these neighbourhoods, a senior security official told AFP, blaming criminal gangs for the fresh outbreak of violence.
Police say they have arrested five suspects and have sent them for interrogation. In addition to this, special teams have also been sent to sensitive areas.
However, despite these steps, there is no let-up in the violence. Firing is still being reported from Lyari, Shoe Market, Bolton Market, Paan Mandi, Lee Market and Joria Bazar.
The bodies were dropped by unidentified people in different areas reportedly in the presence of policemen.
Police say they lack the authority to maintain law and order in the city as the Rangers have been given additional powers to conduct raids.
Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of former PPP MNA Waja Karim Daad, who also fell prey to escalating violence in the city on Wednesday, have been offered.
Zardari condemns murder of Waja Daad Baloch
President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of former member National Assembly, and a Pakistan Peoples Party member Waja Ahmad Karim Daad Baloch, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in Karachi on Wednesday.
President Zardari in a condolence message expressed his deepest sympathies on the death of the former MNA. Zardari lauded the contribution of Waja Karim Daad as a PPP MNA and said that with his death the party had lost a seasoned politician and a sincere worker.
Waja Karim Daad was elected from the Lyari area. The President prayed the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.
Earlier the MQM had also issued a statement in which MQM leader Altaf Hussain condemned the killing of Baloch.
Updated from Print edition (below)
Former MNA, 7 others fall prey to escalating violence
Veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former lawmaker Waja Ahmad Karim Daad was among seven others shot dead in the city on Wednesday.
The fresh spate of violence broke out in the wake of the recovery of five bodies of Lyari residents found in gunny bags from various localities in the city.
More than a dozen people were injured in the wake of the latest outbreak of bloodshed.
(Read: Seeking an end to Karachis killings)
Karim Daad, a former PPP MNA and a popular social worker of the area, was targeted by armed men on motorcycles outside a local restaurant in front of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana in the limits of the Jackson police station just before iftar. Karim Daad and one of his friends were killed on the spot.
The police officer investigating the murder, Sub-Inspector Iftikhar told The Express Tribune that both Karim Daad and his friend Sadaruddin regularly used to sit together in front of the main gate of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana, adding that Karim Daad was shot once in the forehead, Sadaruddin was shot in his upper torso.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Shaukat Ali Shah told The Express Tribune that the killing of the former legislator was the result of a gang war between two rival groups in Lyari. There is old rivalry between Arshad Pappu (currently being run by Ghaffar Zikri) and Rehman Dakait (at present, run by Baba Ladla) groups.
This is (the outcome of) a chain reaction. These incidents are happening in reaction to each other, said the DIG.
Attacks, he said, were also mounted against the Salar Compound after the bodies of five Baloch men were found. God knows what else is to follow, he said.
DIG Shah confirmed the killing of at least six more people, and said nearly a dozen others were injured.
Fierce fighting between the two groups ensued in parts of Lyari, Old City, Saddar, Pak Colony and Old Golimar were affected after intense firing gripped the areas. Hand grenades were freely used by both the groups in the fierce fighting.
Meanwhile, the authorities were unable to take any action and failed to enter the affected areas. The bodies stuffed in gunny bags of the five Baloch-speaking residents of Lyari, which triggered the violence, were found from different areas of the city and all five victims were killed after being kidnapped. They were shot multiple times, mostly on their heads.
Three of the dead who were later identified as Kamran Behram, 26, Shahnawaz Buksh, 25, and Saqib Ghani, 24 were found within the limits of Ferozabad Police Station. All three victims were residents of Sangu Lane, Lyari.
Two more bodies, identified as Irfan Baloch and Nadir Baloch, were also found from Garden and Preedy, respectively. Following their funeral, residents of Lyari took to the streets and staged a demonstration against the killings. The protesters, headed by former president of defunct Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) Shahid Rehman, then marched towards the chief minister house and demanded stern action against the perpetrators.
(Read: How the police is failing the people of Karachi)
However, the protestors dispersed peacefully after Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon pledged to take immediate action over the killings.
While returning from the Chief Minister House, a score of unidentified persons attacked their rival gang in Old City areas including Salar Compound, Bhimpura and the Aqal Bonga area where they hurled nearly a dozen hand-grenades and also fired at least two rockets following intense firing.
Resultantly, a twelve-year-old girl Esha, daughter of Ramji, and two other unidentified persons were killed and nearly half a dozen were injured. At least three vehicles were also damaged after catching fire in the rocket attacks.
Meanwhile, three people including a hosiery shopkeeper Yousuf Sattar were killed and at least four others were wounded during the firing in the Kharadar area.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Salar Compound and its surrounding areas were a stronghold of PPP senior activist Akram Baloch and Lyaris gangsters or the defunct PAC former members believed that Akram was supporting their rival Ghaffar Zikri group and attacking them.
Profile: Waja Ahmad Karim Daad
Former Member National Assembly (MNA) Waja Karim Daad Baloch was a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
He started his political career by contesting the union council elections and was elected councillor in Lyari. Daad, who belonged to the Ismaili community, hailed from Gawadar and later shifted to Kalri, Lyari from where he moved to Kharadar.
During Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttos government, Daad was elected as the PPP president of the old city area comprising Lyari, Keamari, Kharadar, Shams Pir and Baba Bhit. During Benazir Bhuttos government, he was elected as the president of District South.
He had contested the general elections in 1993 and 1997 and won the MNA seat with a thumping majority both times.
His father, Kareem Dad Baloch, was affiliated with the fishing business in Gawadar while his younger brother is continuing the family business.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2011.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly mentioned Waja Karim Daad contesting elections in 1993 and 1999. The correction has been made.
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Pakoras and politics: MQM throws the party of all parties for all parties
Published: August 18, 2011
KARACHI:
Whether you wore a green turban or orange, believed in Bacha Khan or Benazir Bhutto, hated the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or loved it, you were invited to its grand iftar on Wednesday in a demonstration of largesse that was only indirectly proportionate to its level of secrecy on joining the government again.
In Rooh Afza-sweetened tones, guests were welcomed over the microphone to break bread together. The Awami National Party was conspicuous in its absence but almost everyone else accepted the invitation – Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Home minster Manzoor Wasan, Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s Shaheryar Mahar, PML-F’s Jam Madad Ali. The spirits were so warm that the hulking Inspector General of Police Wajid Ali Durrani, in a grey Safari suit led the prayers at Maghreb. There were more surprises in store – Mustafa Kamal, Karachi’s former mayor came in a shalwar kameez. Rough estimates put the number of guests close to 1,000. While the ANP’s Shahi Syed did not turn up, he did have an iftar dinner with MQM leaders three days back when a similar event was organised by the US consulate. ANP general secretary Bashir Jan told The Express Tribune that actually the party had been busy with another important meeting and therefore could not make it.
The crowd that gathered, especially the media, had anticipated some kind of announcement. But even though Governor Ishratul Ebad met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the morning, the MQM leaders remained tight-lipped about any expected move to rejoin the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government at the federal and provincial levels again. “I’m just enjoying life,” quipped Faisal Subzwari, while chatting with journalists and alluding to being out of government life as such. When he made a wholly unnecessary introduction of Dr Saghir Ahmed, as the “former health minister”, the good doctor chuckled and said, “resigned not former”. For his part, Mustafa Kamal said that the party had invited everyone in the spirit of goodwill and reconciliation, and if anyone chose not to come, then what could one do about it.
An enigmatic Farooq Sattar, who was dogged by the press over giving a straight answer on when they would be joining the government, chose to speak in tongues: One sees many dreams, but only few come true. Now that another dream is on the verge of becoming true, one shouldn’t lose the opportunity. Unfortunately, the ‘sooth-saying’ Manzoor Wasan who had dreamt of the MQM men becoming ministers, was out of earshot.
On the menu were pakoras, spring rolls, and chaat for iftari and then well-spiced biryani and chicken qorma with sheer maal and piping hot naan. The kheer dessert bordered on the lukewarm, but the atmosphere, fairy lights and high spirits more than made up for it. Strangely, the caterer had decided to decorate each table with tube roses in what suspiciously looked like Rooh Afza.
As the call to prayer drew to a close, the feeling of goodwill and opportunity climaxed between the PPP and MQM. Members from both sides hugged, patted each other’s backs and cracked jokes. Within a few minutes though, the news of the target killing of a former PPP MNA, Waja Kareem Dad, spread like wildfire. Ironically, peshimam Wajid Durrani had just finished a prayer for peace in the city with senior MQM leader Babar Ghauri and CM Qaim Ali Shah in the rows behind him saying ‘Ameen’.
Later, Home Minister Manzoor Wasan said the Kareem Dad’s killing could be a conspiracy and it would not be fair to comment on the situation without the police having completed an investigation. There were reports of at least five killings in the city by the time iftari drew to a close at around 8:30pm.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2011.
Published: August 18, 2011
KARACHI:
Whether you wore a green turban or orange, believed in Bacha Khan or Benazir Bhutto, hated the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) or loved it, you were invited to its grand iftar on Wednesday in a demonstration of largesse that was only indirectly proportionate to its level of secrecy on joining the government again.
In Rooh Afza-sweetened tones, guests were welcomed over the microphone to break bread together. The Awami National Party was conspicuous in its absence but almost everyone else accepted the invitation – Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Home minster Manzoor Wasan, Pakistan Muslim League-Q’s Shaheryar Mahar, PML-F’s Jam Madad Ali. The spirits were so warm that the hulking Inspector General of Police Wajid Ali Durrani, in a grey Safari suit led the prayers at Maghreb. There were more surprises in store – Mustafa Kamal, Karachi’s former mayor came in a shalwar kameez. Rough estimates put the number of guests close to 1,000. While the ANP’s Shahi Syed did not turn up, he did have an iftar dinner with MQM leaders three days back when a similar event was organised by the US consulate. ANP general secretary Bashir Jan told The Express Tribune that actually the party had been busy with another important meeting and therefore could not make it.
The crowd that gathered, especially the media, had anticipated some kind of announcement. But even though Governor Ishratul Ebad met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the morning, the MQM leaders remained tight-lipped about any expected move to rejoin the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government at the federal and provincial levels again. “I’m just enjoying life,” quipped Faisal Subzwari, while chatting with journalists and alluding to being out of government life as such. When he made a wholly unnecessary introduction of Dr Saghir Ahmed, as the “former health minister”, the good doctor chuckled and said, “resigned not former”. For his part, Mustafa Kamal said that the party had invited everyone in the spirit of goodwill and reconciliation, and if anyone chose not to come, then what could one do about it.
An enigmatic Farooq Sattar, who was dogged by the press over giving a straight answer on when they would be joining the government, chose to speak in tongues: One sees many dreams, but only few come true. Now that another dream is on the verge of becoming true, one shouldn’t lose the opportunity. Unfortunately, the ‘sooth-saying’ Manzoor Wasan who had dreamt of the MQM men becoming ministers, was out of earshot.
On the menu were pakoras, spring rolls, and chaat for iftari and then well-spiced biryani and chicken qorma with sheer maal and piping hot naan. The kheer dessert bordered on the lukewarm, but the atmosphere, fairy lights and high spirits more than made up for it. Strangely, the caterer had decided to decorate each table with tube roses in what suspiciously looked like Rooh Afza.
As the call to prayer drew to a close, the feeling of goodwill and opportunity climaxed between the PPP and MQM. Members from both sides hugged, patted each other’s backs and cracked jokes. Within a few minutes though, the news of the target killing of a former PPP MNA, Waja Kareem Dad, spread like wildfire. Ironically, peshimam Wajid Durrani had just finished a prayer for peace in the city with senior MQM leader Babar Ghauri and CM Qaim Ali Shah in the rows behind him saying ‘Ameen’.
Later, Home Minister Manzoor Wasan said the Kareem Dad’s killing could be a conspiracy and it would not be fair to comment on the situation without the police having completed an investigation. There were reports of at least five killings in the city by the time iftari drew to a close at around 8:30pm.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2011.
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Karachi gang wars: 22 killed overnight in wake of former MNA's death
Published: August 18, 2011
KARACHI: Twenty-two people were killed overnight in Karachi as violence intensified in the wake of the killing of PPP’s former MNA Waja Karim Daad Wednesday evening.
Reportedly, 19 bodies in gunny bags were recovered from different areas of Karachi.
“The situation is still very tense in Lyari and other areas of southern Karachi with sporadic gunfire being echoed around these neighbourhoods,” a senior security official told AFP, blaming criminal gangs for the fresh outbreak of violence.
Police say they have arrested five suspects and have sent them for interrogation. In addition to this, special teams have also been sent to sensitive areas.
However, despite these steps, there is no let-up in the violence. Firing is still being reported from Lyari, Shoe Market, Bolton Market, Paan Mandi, Lee Market and Joria Bazar.
The bodies were dropped by unidentified people in different areas reportedly in the presence of policemen.
Police say they lack the authority to maintain law and order in the city as the Rangers have been given additional powers to conduct raids.
‘Government not failing at maintaining law and order’
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon has dispelled the impression that the law and order situation in Karachi is out of control.
Speaking to Express News, Memon said the Rangers and Police personnel have been tasked with controlling the situation and that they are carrying out raids in different areas.
The minister said that maintaining law and order is the government’s responsibility and it is not failing.
He said extremists want to destabilise the country’s economy by targeting Karachi.
MQM leaders have called an emergency press conference this evening over the recent surge in violence.
Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of former PPP MNA Waja Karim Daad, who also fell prey to escalating violence in the city on Wednesday, have been offered.
Zardari condemns murder of Waja Daad Baloch
President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of former member National Assembly, and a Pakistan People’s Party member Waja Ahmad Karim Daad Baloch, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in Karachi on Wednesday.
President Zardari in a condolence message expressed his deepest sympathies on the death of the former MNA. Zardari lauded the contribution of Waja Karim Daad as a PPP MNA and said that with his death the party had lost a seasoned politician and a sincere worker.
Waja Karim Daad was elected from the Lyari area. The President prayed the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.
Earlier the MQM had also issued a statement in which MQM leader Altaf Hussain condemned the killing of Baloch.
Updated from Print edition (below)
Former MNA, 7 others fall prey to escalating violence
Veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former lawmaker Waja Ahmad Karim Daad was among seven others shot dead in the city on Wednesday.
The fresh spate of violence broke out in the wake of the recovery of five bodies of Lyari residents found in gunny bags from various localities in the city.
More than a dozen people were injured in the wake of the latest outbreak of bloodshed.
(Read: Seeking an end to Karachi’s killings)
Karim Daad, a former PPP MNA and a popular social worker of the area, was targeted by armed men on motorcycles outside a local restaurant in front of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana in the limits of the Jackson police station just before iftar. Karim Daad and one of his friends were killed on the spot.
The police officer investigating the murder, Sub-Inspector Iftikhar told The Express Tribune that both Karim Daad and his friend Sadaruddin regularly used to sit together in front of the main gate of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana, adding that Karim Daad was shot once in the forehead, Sadaruddin was shot in his upper torso.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Shaukat Ali Shah told The Express Tribune that the killing of the former legislator was the result of a “gang war between two rival groups in Lyari”. There is old rivalry between Arshad Pappu (currently being run by Ghaffar Zikri) and Rehman Dakait (at present, run by Baba Ladla) groups.
“This is (the outcome of) a chain reaction. These incidents are happening in reaction to each other,” said the DIG.
Attacks, he said, were also mounted against the Salar Compound after the bodies of five Baloch men were found. “God knows what else is to follow,” he said.
DIG Shah confirmed the killing of at least six more people, and said nearly a dozen others were injured.
Fierce fighting between the two groups ensued in parts of Lyari, Old City, Saddar, Pak Colony and Old Golimar were affected after intense firing gripped the areas. Hand grenades were freely used by both the groups in the fierce fighting.
Meanwhile, the authorities were unable to take any action and failed to enter the affected areas. The bodies stuffed in gunny bags of the five Baloch-speaking residents of Lyari, which triggered the violence, were found from different areas of the city and all five victims were killed after being kidnapped. They were shot multiple times, mostly on their heads.
Three of the dead – who were later identified as Kamran Behram, 26, Shahnawaz Buksh, 25, and Saqib Ghani, 24 – were found within the limits of Ferozabad Police Station. All three victims were residents of Sangu Lane, Lyari.
Two more bodies, identified as Irfan Baloch and Nadir Baloch, were also found from Garden and Preedy, respectively. Following their funeral, residents of Lyari took to the streets and staged a demonstration against the killings. The protesters, headed by former president of defunct Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) Shahid Rehman, then marched towards the chief minister house and demanded stern action against the perpetrators.
(Read: How the police is failing the people of Karachi)
However, the protestors dispersed peacefully after Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon pledged to take immediate action over the killings.
While returning from the Chief Minister House, a score of unidentified persons attacked their rival gang in Old City areas including Salar Compound, Bhimpura and the Aqal Bonga area where they hurled nearly a dozen hand-grenades and also fired at least two rockets following intense firing.
Resultantly, a twelve-year-old girl Esha, daughter of Ramji, and two other unidentified persons were killed and nearly half a dozen were injured. At least three vehicles were also damaged after catching fire in the rocket attacks.
Meanwhile, three people – including a hosiery shopkeeper Yousuf Sattar – were killed and at least four others were wounded during the firing in the Kharadar area.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Salar Compound and its surrounding areas were a stronghold of PPP senior activist Akram Baloch and Lyari’s gangsters or the defunct PAC former members believed that Akram was supporting their rival Ghaffar Zikri group and attacking them.
Profile: Waja Ahmad Karim Daad
Former Member National Assembly (MNA) Waja Karim Daad Baloch was a senior member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
He started his political career by contesting the union council elections and was elected councillor in Lyari. Daad, who belonged to the Ismaili community, hailed from Gawadar and later shifted to Kalri, Lyari from where he moved to Kharadar.
During Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government, Daad was elected as the PPP president of the old city area comprising Lyari, Keamari, Kharadar, Shams Pir and Baba Bhit. During Benazir Bhutto’s government, he was elected as the president of District South.
He had contested the general elections in 1993 and 1997 and won the MNA seat with a thumping majority both times.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2011.
Published: August 18, 2011
KARACHI: Twenty-two people were killed overnight in Karachi as violence intensified in the wake of the killing of PPP’s former MNA Waja Karim Daad Wednesday evening.
Reportedly, 19 bodies in gunny bags were recovered from different areas of Karachi.
“The situation is still very tense in Lyari and other areas of southern Karachi with sporadic gunfire being echoed around these neighbourhoods,” a senior security official told AFP, blaming criminal gangs for the fresh outbreak of violence.
Police say they have arrested five suspects and have sent them for interrogation. In addition to this, special teams have also been sent to sensitive areas.
However, despite these steps, there is no let-up in the violence. Firing is still being reported from Lyari, Shoe Market, Bolton Market, Paan Mandi, Lee Market and Joria Bazar.
The bodies were dropped by unidentified people in different areas reportedly in the presence of policemen.
Police say they lack the authority to maintain law and order in the city as the Rangers have been given additional powers to conduct raids.
‘Government not failing at maintaining law and order’
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon has dispelled the impression that the law and order situation in Karachi is out of control.
Speaking to Express News, Memon said the Rangers and Police personnel have been tasked with controlling the situation and that they are carrying out raids in different areas.
The minister said that maintaining law and order is the government’s responsibility and it is not failing.
He said extremists want to destabilise the country’s economy by targeting Karachi.
MQM leaders have called an emergency press conference this evening over the recent surge in violence.
Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of former PPP MNA Waja Karim Daad, who also fell prey to escalating violence in the city on Wednesday, have been offered.
Zardari condemns murder of Waja Daad Baloch
President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of former member National Assembly, and a Pakistan People’s Party member Waja Ahmad Karim Daad Baloch, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in Karachi on Wednesday.
President Zardari in a condolence message expressed his deepest sympathies on the death of the former MNA. Zardari lauded the contribution of Waja Karim Daad as a PPP MNA and said that with his death the party had lost a seasoned politician and a sincere worker.
Waja Karim Daad was elected from the Lyari area. The President prayed the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.
Earlier the MQM had also issued a statement in which MQM leader Altaf Hussain condemned the killing of Baloch.
Updated from Print edition (below)
Former MNA, 7 others fall prey to escalating violence
Veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former lawmaker Waja Ahmad Karim Daad was among seven others shot dead in the city on Wednesday.
The fresh spate of violence broke out in the wake of the recovery of five bodies of Lyari residents found in gunny bags from various localities in the city.
More than a dozen people were injured in the wake of the latest outbreak of bloodshed.
(Read: Seeking an end to Karachi’s killings)
Karim Daad, a former PPP MNA and a popular social worker of the area, was targeted by armed men on motorcycles outside a local restaurant in front of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana in the limits of the Jackson police station just before iftar. Karim Daad and one of his friends were killed on the spot.
The police officer investigating the murder, Sub-Inspector Iftikhar told The Express Tribune that both Karim Daad and his friend Sadaruddin regularly used to sit together in front of the main gate of the Kharadar Jamaat Khana, adding that Karim Daad was shot once in the forehead, Sadaruddin was shot in his upper torso.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Shaukat Ali Shah told The Express Tribune that the killing of the former legislator was the result of a “gang war between two rival groups in Lyari”. There is old rivalry between Arshad Pappu (currently being run by Ghaffar Zikri) and Rehman Dakait (at present, run by Baba Ladla) groups.
“This is (the outcome of) a chain reaction. These incidents are happening in reaction to each other,” said the DIG.
Attacks, he said, were also mounted against the Salar Compound after the bodies of five Baloch men were found. “God knows what else is to follow,” he said.
DIG Shah confirmed the killing of at least six more people, and said nearly a dozen others were injured.
Fierce fighting between the two groups ensued in parts of Lyari, Old City, Saddar, Pak Colony and Old Golimar were affected after intense firing gripped the areas. Hand grenades were freely used by both the groups in the fierce fighting.
Meanwhile, the authorities were unable to take any action and failed to enter the affected areas. The bodies stuffed in gunny bags of the five Baloch-speaking residents of Lyari, which triggered the violence, were found from different areas of the city and all five victims were killed after being kidnapped. They were shot multiple times, mostly on their heads.
Three of the dead – who were later identified as Kamran Behram, 26, Shahnawaz Buksh, 25, and Saqib Ghani, 24 – were found within the limits of Ferozabad Police Station. All three victims were residents of Sangu Lane, Lyari.
Two more bodies, identified as Irfan Baloch and Nadir Baloch, were also found from Garden and Preedy, respectively. Following their funeral, residents of Lyari took to the streets and staged a demonstration against the killings. The protesters, headed by former president of defunct Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) Shahid Rehman, then marched towards the chief minister house and demanded stern action against the perpetrators.
(Read: How the police is failing the people of Karachi)
However, the protestors dispersed peacefully after Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon pledged to take immediate action over the killings.
While returning from the Chief Minister House, a score of unidentified persons attacked their rival gang in Old City areas including Salar Compound, Bhimpura and the Aqal Bonga area where they hurled nearly a dozen hand-grenades and also fired at least two rockets following intense firing.
Resultantly, a twelve-year-old girl Esha, daughter of Ramji, and two other unidentified persons were killed and nearly half a dozen were injured. At least three vehicles were also damaged after catching fire in the rocket attacks.
Meanwhile, three people – including a hosiery shopkeeper Yousuf Sattar – were killed and at least four others were wounded during the firing in the Kharadar area.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Salar Compound and its surrounding areas were a stronghold of PPP senior activist Akram Baloch and Lyari’s gangsters or the defunct PAC former members believed that Akram was supporting their rival Ghaffar Zikri group and attacking them.
Profile: Waja Ahmad Karim Daad
Former Member National Assembly (MNA) Waja Karim Daad Baloch was a senior member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
He started his political career by contesting the union council elections and was elected councillor in Lyari. Daad, who belonged to the Ismaili community, hailed from Gawadar and later shifted to Kalri, Lyari from where he moved to Kharadar.
During Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government, Daad was elected as the PPP president of the old city area comprising Lyari, Keamari, Kharadar, Shams Pir and Baba Bhit. During Benazir Bhutto’s government, he was elected as the president of District South.
He had contested the general elections in 1993 and 1997 and won the MNA seat with a thumping majority both times.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2011.
ice_man
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damn this is not getting better it is gettign worse!!!! we must de-weaponise karachi right now! ban all arms cancel all weapon licenses!
anyone in government or outside must not be allowed to carry any guns! complete disarmament!
anyone in government or outside must not be allowed to carry any guns! complete disarmament!
pak-marine
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Nabeel Gabol ki seat janay wali hai , it would be interesting to hear more from him
pak-marine
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ice_man
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one man killed 69 people in norway and norway is in shock!!!! the world is in shock on average 20 die in karachi and all people can do is blame other parties!!! no unity amongst karachi people!!!! and no care for life!!
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The killers of Karachi - FT.com
The hitman did not bother to knock. He announced his arrival by firing a volley of shots through Salima Khan’s front door. Bullets ricocheted as she cowered in the kitchen. One of the rounds struck Zainab, her bright-eyed five-year-old, in the arm. A Molotov cocktail shattered and their tiny home began to burn. The family’s crime: belonging to the “wrong” ethnicity.
“They want to kill all the Pashtun,” says Mrs Khan, wiping away tears with her headscarf as she cradles her daughter. “I pray to God there will be peace in Karachi.” The charred body of a rickshaw driver from their Orangi Town neighbourhood was dumped in the street a day after the attack – a grisly portent that the gunmen will return.
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Editorial Washington’s empty gesture
Pakistan navy officers face court martial
A slow-burning war for control of one of the great economic engines of south Asia has burst back into life with a ferocity not seen since the mid-1980s, when Pakistan’s army acted to quell clashes on Karachi’s streets.
The killings are the bloody dividends of a long-running struggle between rival political parties with roots in the ethnic Pashtun and Mohajir communities. This summer, the violence has hit new heights. Shootings and grenade attacks in labyrinthine slums and hillside shanty towns claimed more than 300 lives in July, one of the worst monthly tolls on record. The deaths took the total killed in Karachi this year to more than 800, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation.
New murders occur daily. Asif Ali Zardari, the unpopular president, has proved powerless to pacify the country’s biggest city – the heart of its $160bn economy, the seat of its stock exchange and the home of an important Arabian Sea port.
Rehman Malik, the interior minister, earned widespread ridicule when he played down the significance of the mayhem by suggesting 70 per cent of the murders were committed by angry girlfriends or wives. In fact, the violence is a warning light for long-term prospects for stability in a country whose fate may have grave security implications for the west.
US and European concerns centre on Pakistan’s murky role in Afghanistan, its army’s ambiguous relationship with Islamist militants and the security of its nuclear arsenal. The risks posed by this volatile mix were highlighted in May when US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda founder, who was hiding less than a mile from Pakistan’s military academy. Karachi’s politically instigated killings may seem parochial by comparison but they are a symptom of deeper conflicts that may ultimately play a greater role in shaping Pakistan’s destiny.
Like no other city, Karachi distils the mix of gun politics, ethnic tensions, sectarian strife, state weakness, militancy and organised crime that makes the whole country so fragile. It is these trends that will determine whether Pakistan’s hesitant journey from military rule to a semblance of democracy will deliver greater stability or deeper fragmentation.
“We are not evolving into nationhood. We’re breaking up into ethnic groupings,” says Amber Alibhai, secretary-general of Shehri, a pressure group that campaigns against rampant land-grabbing in the city. “The social contract between the citizens among themselves and between the state has been destroyed.”
Karachi was born on an unprepossessing mudflat in the Indus river civilisation then known as Sindh. Over the centuries, swirling currents of migration have washed in ancestors of virtually every Pakistani community. But it is the explosive demography of the past 50 years that has created today’s pressure cooker. Karachi’s population, 450,000 people at independence in 1947, is now estimated at as many as 18m.
Although it has long bubbled with ethnic and sectarian tension, it has a reputation as one of the country’s more liberal, secular cities. Karachi has, however, suffered its share of militant attacks – including a spectacular raid on a naval base launched in retaliation for bin Laden’s death.
The clearest narrative in the present tangle of troubles is a variant of the age-old struggle between incumbent and challenger. Battle lines in city politics are marked by flags strung from lamp posts and mobile phone masts, staking the contenders’ territory. Fluttering banners in red, white and green belong to the incumbent – the Muttahida Quami Movement, the city’s dominant political force. The MQM draws the core of its support from the Mohajir, descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants who flooded in from India during Pakistan’s birth pangs and formed the nucleus of an aspiring middle class. The party’s strength is reflected in the Sindh provincial assembly, where it occupies 28 of Karachi’s 33 seats.
Karachi
Crimson flags flying across poorer neighbourhoods belong to the challenger – the Awami National party. The ANP draws the bulk of its support from a growing influx of Pashtun migrants from north-western regions bordering Afghanistan. Many work as labourers, security guards or drive multicoloured buses emblazoned with dazzling mandalas, peacocks and lions.
Complicating the picture further, Mr Zardari’s ruling Pakistan Peoples party has its roots in Sindh. To shore up his majority in Islamabad, the president is constantly embroiled with his Karachi rivals in revolving-door coalition politics. The latest wave of killings erupted last month after the MQM quit Mr Zardari’s coalition. Violence has tended to spike in the city when the party is in opposition in the capital, which underscores its relevance on the national stage. As always, each party accused the other of igniting the tinderbox.
. . .
In a country facing a rising tide of Islamic extremism, the MQM sees itself as a bastion of secular, middle-class values – pointing proudly to its record in bolstering crumbling infrastructure. “Our five years of development work are more than what people have done in 55 years in Karachi,” says Mustafa Kamal, who won plaudits while serving as mayor from 2005 to 2010.
But critics believe the party is inextricably linked with the violence. Murders of activists from all sides began to increase sharply in May 2007 and rose rapidly after 2008 national elections, when the ANP won its first two city seats. Many believe the MQM is determined to prevent the upstart gaining a foothold.
What is beyond dispute is that politics does not get much dirtier than it does in Karachi. Public debate revolves around the form local government should take – with different parties pushing models that will enhance their opportunities for patronage.
The violence reflects a more fundamental struggle: a multi-sided war for control of votes, land and protection rackets. Shadowy alliances between power-brokers, slum landlords, drug barons and gun-runners sharpen its deadly edge. Killers do not always stop at murder. “They chop the bodies into pieces and put them in sacks and throw them in the street,” says Seemin Jamali, who manages the casualty ward at a Karachi hospital.
The brutal spasms have acquired a self-reinforcing quality. The more fear people feel, the more they turn to parties for protection and the more powerful their leaders become. Killings are no longer confined to party activists: simply being Pashtun or Mohajir is enough. Commuters, taxi drivers and shopkeepers are all considered fair game. The ethnic Baluch community and other minorities are being sucked in.
Bullet holes puncturing shop shutters in the ANP-dominated Qasbar district in Orangi Town bear witness to recent killings. Mohammed Ali, a burly, thickly bearded property dealer, is scared to enter an MQM stronghold a few minutes’ walk away. “They’d take a shotgun and – bang, bang – they’d kill us because we are Pashtun,” he says.
Similar fears haunt the Mohajir. Malik Mohammed Jamil, a car-parts dealer, says he lost five relatives when gunmen stormed the market housing their shop last year – an attack blamed on Baluch militants. Dozens of traders have since applied for gun licences. “This kind of thing has made us feel as if we’re not citizens of Pakistan,” he says. “The country has been carved up between Punjabis, Sindhis and Pashtuns.”
. . .
With the state unable even to provide reliable electricity, expectations for justice are low. Outgunned and undermanned, the police are afraid to arrest assassins protected by powerful politicians. “We need the nod from the government to start looking for the people who are behind the targeted killings,” says a security official. “We’re not getting it.”
Those who speak out risk being silenced. Nisar Baloch, who led a campaign to stop a cartel of illegal land-grabbers encroaching on a park, was shot in 2008 while going to buy a newspaper to read an account of a press conference he had given. At his modest home, where his brooding face stares from a larger-than-life portrait, Bahar Nooruddin, his sister, condemns Pakistan’s politicians. “They know everything that’s going on but they don’t want to act.”
The government response to the current outbreak has a repetitive feel. As usual, Islamabad has ordered paramilitary rangers to sweep neighbourhoods in search of perpetrators. Talks have been held with city politicians. Rewards have been offered for mobile phone pictures of suspects. But most believe it is only a matter of time before the next bout of killing.
There is another side to Karachi. “Say goodbye to split ends in 14 days” promise banners advertising Pantene shampoo, appealing to a growing middle class. Well-heeled diners pay Rs300 ($3.50) to enter the eateries at the new Port Grand mall, developed on a forgotten patch of seafront. Bloodshed may shut shops for a day but the city never pauses for long.
Such resilience is the city’s greatest asset. The question is whether its wells of tolerance run as deep. A unified, thriving Karachi would be a beacon of hope for a more peaceful Pakistan. For now, the chasms dividing the city, and the country, grow a little deeper with each freshly dug grave.
The hitman did not bother to knock. He announced his arrival by firing a volley of shots through Salima Khan’s front door. Bullets ricocheted as she cowered in the kitchen. One of the rounds struck Zainab, her bright-eyed five-year-old, in the arm. A Molotov cocktail shattered and their tiny home began to burn. The family’s crime: belonging to the “wrong” ethnicity.
“They want to kill all the Pashtun,” says Mrs Khan, wiping away tears with her headscarf as she cradles her daughter. “I pray to God there will be peace in Karachi.” The charred body of a rickshaw driver from their Orangi Town neighbourhood was dumped in the street a day after the attack – a grisly portent that the gunmen will return.
More
On this story
Violent clashes leave 90 dead in Karachi
Pakistan hits at US over murder claim
At least 50 dead in Karachi shootings
Editorial Washington’s empty gesture
Pakistan navy officers face court martial
A slow-burning war for control of one of the great economic engines of south Asia has burst back into life with a ferocity not seen since the mid-1980s, when Pakistan’s army acted to quell clashes on Karachi’s streets.
The killings are the bloody dividends of a long-running struggle between rival political parties with roots in the ethnic Pashtun and Mohajir communities. This summer, the violence has hit new heights. Shootings and grenade attacks in labyrinthine slums and hillside shanty towns claimed more than 300 lives in July, one of the worst monthly tolls on record. The deaths took the total killed in Karachi this year to more than 800, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation.
New murders occur daily. Asif Ali Zardari, the unpopular president, has proved powerless to pacify the country’s biggest city – the heart of its $160bn economy, the seat of its stock exchange and the home of an important Arabian Sea port.
Rehman Malik, the interior minister, earned widespread ridicule when he played down the significance of the mayhem by suggesting 70 per cent of the murders were committed by angry girlfriends or wives. In fact, the violence is a warning light for long-term prospects for stability in a country whose fate may have grave security implications for the west.
US and European concerns centre on Pakistan’s murky role in Afghanistan, its army’s ambiguous relationship with Islamist militants and the security of its nuclear arsenal. The risks posed by this volatile mix were highlighted in May when US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda founder, who was hiding less than a mile from Pakistan’s military academy. Karachi’s politically instigated killings may seem parochial by comparison but they are a symptom of deeper conflicts that may ultimately play a greater role in shaping Pakistan’s destiny.
Like no other city, Karachi distils the mix of gun politics, ethnic tensions, sectarian strife, state weakness, militancy and organised crime that makes the whole country so fragile. It is these trends that will determine whether Pakistan’s hesitant journey from military rule to a semblance of democracy will deliver greater stability or deeper fragmentation.
“We are not evolving into nationhood. We’re breaking up into ethnic groupings,” says Amber Alibhai, secretary-general of Shehri, a pressure group that campaigns against rampant land-grabbing in the city. “The social contract between the citizens among themselves and between the state has been destroyed.”
Karachi was born on an unprepossessing mudflat in the Indus river civilisation then known as Sindh. Over the centuries, swirling currents of migration have washed in ancestors of virtually every Pakistani community. But it is the explosive demography of the past 50 years that has created today’s pressure cooker. Karachi’s population, 450,000 people at independence in 1947, is now estimated at as many as 18m.
Although it has long bubbled with ethnic and sectarian tension, it has a reputation as one of the country’s more liberal, secular cities. Karachi has, however, suffered its share of militant attacks – including a spectacular raid on a naval base launched in retaliation for bin Laden’s death.
The clearest narrative in the present tangle of troubles is a variant of the age-old struggle between incumbent and challenger. Battle lines in city politics are marked by flags strung from lamp posts and mobile phone masts, staking the contenders’ territory. Fluttering banners in red, white and green belong to the incumbent – the Muttahida Quami Movement, the city’s dominant political force. The MQM draws the core of its support from the Mohajir, descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants who flooded in from India during Pakistan’s birth pangs and formed the nucleus of an aspiring middle class. The party’s strength is reflected in the Sindh provincial assembly, where it occupies 28 of Karachi’s 33 seats.
Karachi
Crimson flags flying across poorer neighbourhoods belong to the challenger – the Awami National party. The ANP draws the bulk of its support from a growing influx of Pashtun migrants from north-western regions bordering Afghanistan. Many work as labourers, security guards or drive multicoloured buses emblazoned with dazzling mandalas, peacocks and lions.
Complicating the picture further, Mr Zardari’s ruling Pakistan Peoples party has its roots in Sindh. To shore up his majority in Islamabad, the president is constantly embroiled with his Karachi rivals in revolving-door coalition politics. The latest wave of killings erupted last month after the MQM quit Mr Zardari’s coalition. Violence has tended to spike in the city when the party is in opposition in the capital, which underscores its relevance on the national stage. As always, each party accused the other of igniting the tinderbox.
. . .
In a country facing a rising tide of Islamic extremism, the MQM sees itself as a bastion of secular, middle-class values – pointing proudly to its record in bolstering crumbling infrastructure. “Our five years of development work are more than what people have done in 55 years in Karachi,” says Mustafa Kamal, who won plaudits while serving as mayor from 2005 to 2010.
But critics believe the party is inextricably linked with the violence. Murders of activists from all sides began to increase sharply in May 2007 and rose rapidly after 2008 national elections, when the ANP won its first two city seats. Many believe the MQM is determined to prevent the upstart gaining a foothold.
What is beyond dispute is that politics does not get much dirtier than it does in Karachi. Public debate revolves around the form local government should take – with different parties pushing models that will enhance their opportunities for patronage.
The violence reflects a more fundamental struggle: a multi-sided war for control of votes, land and protection rackets. Shadowy alliances between power-brokers, slum landlords, drug barons and gun-runners sharpen its deadly edge. Killers do not always stop at murder. “They chop the bodies into pieces and put them in sacks and throw them in the street,” says Seemin Jamali, who manages the casualty ward at a Karachi hospital.
The brutal spasms have acquired a self-reinforcing quality. The more fear people feel, the more they turn to parties for protection and the more powerful their leaders become. Killings are no longer confined to party activists: simply being Pashtun or Mohajir is enough. Commuters, taxi drivers and shopkeepers are all considered fair game. The ethnic Baluch community and other minorities are being sucked in.
Bullet holes puncturing shop shutters in the ANP-dominated Qasbar district in Orangi Town bear witness to recent killings. Mohammed Ali, a burly, thickly bearded property dealer, is scared to enter an MQM stronghold a few minutes’ walk away. “They’d take a shotgun and – bang, bang – they’d kill us because we are Pashtun,” he says.
Similar fears haunt the Mohajir. Malik Mohammed Jamil, a car-parts dealer, says he lost five relatives when gunmen stormed the market housing their shop last year – an attack blamed on Baluch militants. Dozens of traders have since applied for gun licences. “This kind of thing has made us feel as if we’re not citizens of Pakistan,” he says. “The country has been carved up between Punjabis, Sindhis and Pashtuns.”
. . .
With the state unable even to provide reliable electricity, expectations for justice are low. Outgunned and undermanned, the police are afraid to arrest assassins protected by powerful politicians. “We need the nod from the government to start looking for the people who are behind the targeted killings,” says a security official. “We’re not getting it.”
Those who speak out risk being silenced. Nisar Baloch, who led a campaign to stop a cartel of illegal land-grabbers encroaching on a park, was shot in 2008 while going to buy a newspaper to read an account of a press conference he had given. At his modest home, where his brooding face stares from a larger-than-life portrait, Bahar Nooruddin, his sister, condemns Pakistan’s politicians. “They know everything that’s going on but they don’t want to act.”
The government response to the current outbreak has a repetitive feel. As usual, Islamabad has ordered paramilitary rangers to sweep neighbourhoods in search of perpetrators. Talks have been held with city politicians. Rewards have been offered for mobile phone pictures of suspects. But most believe it is only a matter of time before the next bout of killing.
There is another side to Karachi. “Say goodbye to split ends in 14 days” promise banners advertising Pantene shampoo, appealing to a growing middle class. Well-heeled diners pay Rs300 ($3.50) to enter the eateries at the new Port Grand mall, developed on a forgotten patch of seafront. Bloodshed may shut shops for a day but the city never pauses for long.
Such resilience is the city’s greatest asset. The question is whether its wells of tolerance run as deep. A unified, thriving Karachi would be a beacon of hope for a more peaceful Pakistan. For now, the chasms dividing the city, and the country, grow a little deeper with each freshly dug grave.
Evil Flare
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KARACHI: Up to 30 people have been killed in a fresh outbreak of violence in Karachi, Pakistans biggest city and commercial capital, but police on Thursday said the clashes now focused more on gang turf wars after months of ethnic and political disputes.
Much of the fighting erupted in and around the old district of Lyari, long a focus of spats between rival gangs and a stronghold of President Asif Ali Zardaris Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Former PPP lawmaker Waja Karim Daad was among the dead.
An official at the citys main government hospital put the death toll at 30 over the past 24 hours. Nineteen bodies had been brought in since Wednesday evening.
Most of the killings have resulted from clashes between criminal gangs operating in Lyari and surrounding areas, a senior police official said.
Its not the kind of fighting that we saw last month, this is more of a gang war.
But police said turf wars between gangs dealing in drugs and extortion rackets were by no means a new development in Lyari.
These gangs regularly clash and kill members and supporters of rival groups, the senior official said.
Many times, innocent people are also targeted in this rivalry. However, many of those killed end up linked to one gang or the other. Some of these gangs do have political support and backing, but still you cannot term this as a political war as such.
He acknowledged that a few of those killed may have been targeted over their ethnic or political affiliation.
I FOUND OUT FROM SOME BODY WHO ARRIVED FROM PAKISTAN, AT BANGKOK AIRPORT,THEY WERE DISCUSSING THAT AMERICAN KIDNAPPING, AND ONE PERSON GIVE THE NUMBER 03239113045 TO THE PERSON IN BANGKOK THAT THIS GUY HAS THAT AMERICAN MAN
pak-marine
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Al jazeera reported there are 37 dead so far , some hard core criminals are after baloch's this time 5 bodies recovered from different parts of the city
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