22 May 2012
By Saeed Qureshi
During the past few weeks, scores of precious lives
have perished in Karachi in the so called target
killing. The trend of vendetta murders continues
unabated. There are rival groups both political and
trigger happy goons killing for ransom or extortion
money. They also remain locked in a do or die combat
for the ulterior motives of mutual annihilation. The
law enforcement agencies mostly police and
paramilitary are interspersed all over Karachi for a
wild goose hunt for killers, sharp shooters and other
assortment of criminals.
There is no respite in the dare day massacres by
mafias and heavily armed groups that brook no mercy
for their targets. They subject their victims to
spin-chilling brutalities. The mutilated and twisted
bodies bear the signs of torture that normal human
being cannot even think of. The limbs of captured
hostages are dismembered and broken and their bodies
holed with lethal weapons. This is happening in a
country where an elected democratic government is at
the helm.
There is an unremitting war raging between the MQM and
their political and ethnic adversaries that take a
toll of citizen's lives every day. The Lyari area in
Karachi has turned into a battlefield where the count
of dead and injured is multiplying, where bullets are
flying and where gunfire ringing in front of the
police and rangers and other peace keeping forces.
The law and order is fragile or negligible in the
strife-torn sensitive areas of Karachi where pitched
and guerrilla style battles are being fought. The law
enforcement agencies are hauling good number of
miscreants and bounty killers on daily basis. But the
desperadoes are mushrooming and replacing those
caught.
It is indeed a frightening situation where the lives
of peaceful citizens are at stake. The business
community is the worst sufferer and they do not or
hesitatingly open their shops for fear of being killed
or kidnapped if they refuse to pay the extortion
money.
The daily life of the
citizens in Karachi is paralyzed. The entire city has
turned to be a replica of Baghdad and Kabul where life
of ordinary folks is prone to drone attacks or night
patrolling of the occupation troops. In Karachi it may
not be drone attacks and even hostile soldiers busy in
ambush sprees. Here are visible and invisible enemies
that are wreaking havoc with the social harmony of
that largest city of Pakistan to choke Pakistan
economically.
There are migrants and new settlers from other parts
of Pakistan that reportedly have taken to the most
lucrative business of drug trafficking, land grabbing
and kidnapping for ransom. There are various brands of
religious militants who brook no mercy in massacring
the identified heathen or opponents to their fanatic
creed of religion. Extortionists are all over the city
and all they need is gun or a knife and will to kill
on the drop of the hat.
Then there are Baluchies, the alien economic workers,
Pathans, the religious bands inclusion Taliban, the
political rabble rousers and so on. Karachi is a
potpourri of various ethnic groups and perhaps the
safest haven where they can perpetuate in their
nefarious acts with impunity.
The MQM cadres, the PPP
breakaway factions, the hardened and heartless
assassins, the foreign agent provocateurs, the local
thugs, bandits and outlaws; the incorrigible
emotionally charged political activists, all aggravate
the lawlessness and fish in the troubled waters.
The snatching of cars and purses, the decamping with
money and jewelry, the breaking into the houses and
making inmates as hostages to take away the precious
belongings, money and jewelry are daily happenings.
The looting of the banks and ATM machines are
frequent. This murky atmosphere has robbed the
citizens of their peace of mind and it is trapping
them into a syndrome of paranoid, unknown fears and
phobias, and mental agonies. No one is safe in Karachi
and very few should be mentally sound as to perform
their daily chores with peace of mind.
If the laws enforcement agencies with their mighty
firepower and immense manpower, and meticulous
organization and with the official support seem to be
incapable of restoring peace to bedeviled Karachi then
I would offer two alternatives that might work.
Firstly, hand over Karachi to the armed forces. They
should impose a curfew for a specified period of time
on daily basis. They should set up summary military
courts to award speedy sentences to the heinous
criminals that should range from firing squads to long
jail terms. They should not be lodged in local jails
but isolated in an island in the oceans miles away
from Karachi.
If the incumbent government has reservation about the
army's induction into resorting peace in Karachi and
stem violence then it should invite Taliban to restore
peace in that city that has become a haven for crooks
and criminals of all hues. They would perform this
task in matter of few weeks. No other mafia or killers
‘brigands can compete with them. It is doubtful if
they would go back after doing the needful.
If this is not acceptable either, let government
convene a session of all the political parties and
hammer out a joint plan of action to curb and halt
this terrible mayhem that is pushing the city of
Karachi and the whole of Pakistan into a terrible
civil war. What could be the outcome of that? The
answer is fragmentation and further division of this
country into how many parts no one presently knows.
If none of these options can be plausible for the
government and it would watch the gory situation as it
is unfolding, then in all fairness it should resign
hands up with the confession that it cannot overcome
the epidemic of violence and rampant carnage
swallowing lives of innocent people day in and day
out.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments