Operation Lyari - Zafar Hilaly
Zafar Hilaly
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Even as Lyari was burning and men dying while their terrified wives and mothers screamed for help, the Karachi stock market was booming, going up by a massive 252 points on Friday. For the happy Karachi punter, Lyari may just as well have been on another planet.
Some played down what is happening in Lyari, ignoring the death toll of 36 and pointing out that the fighting only affected three Union Councils, in other words, a mere 250,000 to 300,000 people in a city of 18 million.
If the fate of that number of fellow citizens fails to move us, then frankly, we had better call it a day as a nation. How can we react with such indifference when Lyari is virtually across the street for millions of Karachiites? Wanting, therefore, to know more about Lyari, I sought the views of a former official, an experienced person, both neutral and well plugged-in. His story was revealing.
Apparently the Lyari operation was the brainchild of Mr Zardari who ordered the IG police of Sindh and the chief secretary to start across-the-board action in Lyari. However, the real chief minister of Sind, the infamous Tuppi, who holds no political office but rules Sindh on the PPPs behalf, summoned both the officers and told them to do what a veteran politician of the area, Nabil Gabol (now back in PPP good books) tells them, or else... That, of course, immediately ended all prospects of the operation being carred out across the board.
Nabil Gabol, who apparently, has scores to settle with opponents in Lyari, especially with the head of the Aman Committee, Uzair Baloch, began directing the Sindh Police. And the reason why the Rangers were kept out initially is because they dont take orders from outsiders, no matter how influential that person might be, and even if the Sindh home minister was sacked on his advice.
However, what no one really bargained for was the depth of resistance to the police operation. Clearly Gabol has badly rubbed up members of the Aman Committee the wrong way.
The Lyari Aman Committee and its affiliates are the handiwork of that vocal, now mute, PPP stalwart Zulfiqar Mirza. The committee set up to break the MQMs stranglehold on the city and end its monopoly on the collection of bhatta (extortion money) became self-financing: if you pay them, you dont get your godowns burnt.
The Aman Committee was provided weapons to match those of its opponents, including rocket- and grenade-launchers. On one occasion, the two sides indulged in a kind of live-fire practice, which accounted for 9 deaths.
The MQM, of course, is keeping quiet, but secretly it must be delighted with whats going on. One adversary is fighting the other, so what could possibly be better?
Rahman Maliks role is to do what he is best at, namely, to obfuscate, confuse and throw the public off the scent. Immediately on his arrival in Karachi on Wednesday he announced, without proffering a shred of evidence, that the TTP and the BLA were involved.
He clearly forgot to mention the SLA, CIA, Moussad, Khad, RAW, et al. And, even if the BLA are involved, doesnt that show the extent of the disaffection within Lyari and his own party? Could anyone have imagined that in a constituency, which has never failed to elect a PPP candidate and where the name Bhutto was virtually worshipped, should now be filled with voters jostling each other for the opportunity to curse the PPP on TV.
It was Rahman Malik who unwittingly revealed just how bogus the politics of reconciliation is, and how much the PPP had changed from a moral crusader which it once aspired to be into a hollow entity.
On the other side of the barricade are the Sind police. Protecting ministers, advisers, etc., and steering them away from danger seems not only the primary but sole purpose of their existence. An exception, let it be said, is the Sindh minister of agriculture who moves about without an escort, lives in his own home and does not even have a police guard at his gate or a flag on his car.
An ancillary task of the Sindh police is to fleece the public, both to make ends meet, as their salaries are insufficient, and just for the heck of it. Protecting the public and maintain law and order ranks third in their list of priorities.
A friend spoke of sniffer dogs brought in after a robbery tracking the bandits to the police station. The explanation offered by the SHO was that the dogs were tired and merely wanted to return home.
Barring some deserving officers in the Sindh Police, most rank-and-file members have forked out exorbitant sums to be recruited and/or benefited from the nepotism and favouritism which is rife.
Predictably, their efficiency has suffered. On TV footages, policemen can be seen firing aimlessly or into the air. One clip showed a police marksman firing burst after burst with his eyes firmly shut.
To have hit nothing after so many shots probably earned him a shoulder promotion for having such a wonderful talent for missing. Or, perhaps its a new tactic that is intended to account for the enemy, through falling bullets rather than direct hits.
Although the police face a difficult task in Lyari, they have made such heavy going of the whole affair that one was tempted to ask whether their opponents were Red Army stalwarts who defended Stalingrad from the ferocious German assault in World War II.
Seven days is surely enough time to ferret out a score of gangsters in a relatively confined area, given the huge advantage in firepower and numbers that the police enjoy? Incredibly, of the 36 killed, only six were criminals, and for this too we have to take the word of the police because no bodies were produced.
When and how will the fighting end? The rule of thumb in urban fighting is that it lasts about a week or so because thats on average as long as those trapped can survive without replenishing their food stocks. And if the police have the area effectively sealed off, as they claim, and water supplies have been cut off any fight should not take too long to end.
What then? If the past is any guide, the gangsters will take some time to lick their wounds, pack their families off to relatives, repair defences, rearm and be ready for the next round, or at best relocate.
However, what the government has not taken into account is the hatred that the population of Lyari has acquired for the authorities for the suffering inflicted on them, and thats going to be a huge force-multiplier when the next round begins.
Of course, no lessons will be learnt from the operation. They never are because thats not our way. Or, on second thought, perhaps the one lesson that they will learn is to purchase more armoured vehicles, only because someone will be able to benefit by jacking up the price.
Whatever this countrys eventual fate, one thing is certain, that only a political Houdini, like the one we have, could have so meticulously planned our ruin.
So, lets join the Lyari mother who cupped her hands, looked skyward, and asked for deliverance. And lets say Ameen.
Operation Lyari - Zafar Hilaly
liyari people live in liyari and do not go to BALUCHISTAN!!!! for god sake understand that there are people who have lived in karachi for 2 or 3 generations! i am sure they are still in liyari and a deal between government and them has been done! Now watch and see how chaudry aslam of CID will be targeted and killed!
