Trouble in Karachi

The politicians, the city’s administrators, the law-enforcement agencies, the intelligence apparatus everyone must work to cool the political temperature in Karachi and stem a dangerous tide of violence.

Karachi is simmering again. The latest round of violence since the weekend has taken the lives of over a dozen members of the MQM and its bitter rival, MQM (Haqiqi), and more violence may well occur in the days ahead. Explaining the goings-on in Karachi’s murky world of politics is always diffi-cult, but there are some indications of what may have sparked the current round of what appear to be tit-for-tat killings.

Late last month, Afaq Ahmed and Aamir Khan, leaders of their respective factions of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement and con-sidered to be bitter enemies of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (the party which is part of the coalition government in Sindh and at the centre), were acquitted on charges of possessing illicit arms and explosives. With now only a few cases remaining against the two, they may soon be released from jail — raising the hackles of the MQM and fuelling its age-old suspicion that the PPP may have a soft corner for the Haqiqi group. Old wounds and new developments then may be what lie behind the latest round of violence. However, according to the MQM, the violence is part of a conspiracy aimed at the ‘Talibanisation’ of Karachi.

Be that as it may, the Sindh government and the law-enforcement agencies are clearly failing in their basic duty to the citizenry: ensuring law and order and protecting the lives and property of the people of Karachi. Preventing target killings is incredibly difficult for any agency; with literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of potential targets and suspects, it is difficult to prevent any given person from entering any given person’s home or waylaying that person on the road and killing him. Having said that, the performance of the police and other law-enforcement agencies has been dismal when it comes to dispersing protesters and ensuring that groups of armed men do not go on the rampage in the city’s neighbourhoods.

What seems to be missing is a coherent plan to stem the violence. Surely it is not difficult to identify vulnerable neighbourhoods, step up patrolling, increase spot checks, cancel all but essential leave of law-enforcement personnel and work round the clock to not just clamp down on armed miscreants. These are dangerous days in Karachi and extraordinary times call for extraordinary vigilance and actions. It must also not be forgotten that with a full-fledged counter-insurgency underway in the northwest and a military operation perhaps imminent in South Waziristan, the possibility of retaliatory strikes in Karachi is high; the last thing the city needs is for another front to flare up in an al-ready combustible atmosphere. The politicians, the city’s administrators, the law-enforcement agencies, the intelligence apparatus — everyone must work to cool the political temperature in Karachi and stem a dangerous tide of violence.