Qasba Aligarh Massacre – a forgotten story
It has been more than a decade and a half but by actually going back to what really happened haunts me to the core. I didn’t know the extent of this massacre until only recently, yes, I am guilty as charged and it was only recently I met some of the survivors out of an accident to realize what really happened to the residents of a remote place named, Qasba Aligarh in Karachi. It really was a "genocide".
Qasba Aligarh is located with-in Karachi limits and consists of basically poor and lower middle class Mohajir families living side by side by Pashtoons. Qasba Aligarh was initially made as a colony for journalists where amenity plots were handed out to the residents but due to the distance from the city most journalists sold their plots or give out to their relatives mainly Muslim Migrants from India to Pakistan.
Background
It all started from an administrative decision from the than Governor Sindh, Gen.Retd. Jahandad Khan who took the decision on the orders from the federal government to start an operation at what we know as Al-Asif Square at Sorab Goth, Karachi (an illegally encroached properties by Afghan migrants during the late and early 1980s). During the Afghan War in the 1980’s against the Soviet Occupation and General Zia(s) manufactured Islam and Islamization of Society more then 4 million refugees from Afghanistan were welcomed in Pakistan as temporary refugees. Around 3/5th of these refugees moved to Karachi.
When the new migrants mostly Pashtuns from Afghanistan and K.P started to occupy areas allocated to the old migrants - tensions started to brew. One must also add that the conflict in Orangi town and Qasba area intensified after Biharis were repatriated from former East Pakistan where most of them were re-settled by Pakistani government in Orangi Town and adjoining area. Unfortunately, it was the time when ethnic violence intensified in Karachi. The Biharis which had most migrated from former East Pakistan used their Al-Badar and Al-Shams experience to safe-guard themselves while ditching Islamists Jamaat-e-Islami Islamists joining newly formed ethno-political entity, Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in a new Pakistan. The tensions were high and over priceless land: hence, both MQM and ANP representatives of Mohajirs and Pashtuns capitalized.
The Operation at Al-Asif Square
13th December 1986
Governor Sindh Gen (retd) Jahandad finally called for an operation against drug barons and illegal weapons at Al-Asif Square after US Consul General pointed towards piles of weapons and drugs being stocked in the area. Finally a committee to over-look operation at Al-Asif Square was formed consisting of Governor Sindh, Deputy Commissioner Karachi, IG Sindh, and CC-Karachi. The idea was to remove all encroached areas; clear the area and re-locate refugees to National Highway.
The Reaction
14th December 1986
The operation at Al-Asif Square was seen by ANP which represented Pashtuns as an operation against its constituency and ethnic riots broke out where Pashtuns after 1962 elections, attacked Mohajir localities and Mohajirs retaliated. These ethnic rioting were confined to slums however, affected all of Karachi: where resident's lived in fear of an attack. It is to be noted that Qasba was one of the most tense places in the city and there had been intelligence reports of rioting in the are and police and at-least two fully armed army units were deployed in the area to prevent rioting.
The Killing Spree
15th December 1986
Amid tensions and high-alert - when Karachi slept, the people of Qasba mourned; not from drone attacks or from a foreign force but from it's barbaric neighbors who were drowned in hate. While the numbers are sketchy but from 120-300 people where murdered in Qasba Aligarh and around 600 were injured.
“They came inside out houses and asked for men”, “they killed indiscriminately with knifes and guns chanting Allah’o’Akber as if we were infidels” said one of the survivors who lost her father and elder brother sobbing and she was correct. Astonishingly mosques were used to mobilize people to kill and there were speeches and sermons given against the people living in Qasba Aligarh by pseudo Mullah’s that day branding Mohajirs as “Infidels” and that “killing them would take one to heaven”. .
Mohammad Ibrahim another survivor who lost his elder brother told us that “they came in and started burning our houses, kicking the babies, raping our women and killing anyone in front of them …”.
The details are not sketchy at all. On asking the survivors and those who were in administrative structure in Sindh during the time revealed a shocking tale of how the Army Unit deployed at Qasba was mysteriously pulled out just before the massacre and how police never reacted while the police station was less than a kilometer away from Qasba? All these questions were raised by the people of the area ; facts which are undeniable.
The army division which deployed to the Qasba Coloney was mysteriously pulled back just two hours before the incident took place whom you do think is responsible? I asked to a top administrative official who refused to be named and his reply was “whom you do think has the power to call the army back?, ofcourse the than Core Commander Karachi.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah the former Chief Justice of Supreme Court later wrote an inquiry report who criticized, “army, administrative and governor’s role in the event and clearly wrote in the report, “that it is the worst kind of massacre I had ever witnessed, where women, children and men from Mohajir community were slaughtered by people from illegal immigrants and Core Commander Karachi should have questioned as to why Army was asked to retreat approximately 2 hours before the incident took take. There clearly seems to be a foul-play”.
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