Karachi: Red mist

Karachi was spared any further incident of major violence on Wednesday, following the killing spree the previous day that took around 15 lives. Fears of new killings however hung over the city, like an ugly red mist, locking in the tensions that lingered within it, re-creating a new wave of the fear that its people have lived with for years. A tight security cover was kept in place as funeral prayers were offered for the Deputy Secretary General of the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, Maulana Dedar Ali Jalbani, with roads blocked and markets closed. Jalbani, along with his guard, was among those gunned down on Tuesday. Other victims included three members of the Tableeghi Jamaat, including two Moroccan nationals, and an individual identified as a police informer. Police appear to believe that the violence had a sectarian bent, which adds to the threat of possible retaliation. The key question though has to be why the steps put in place to improve security in Karachi have not worked. The city has seen similar violence before. We were promised that measures were being taken to prevent this from happening again. The IGP Sindh and Director General Rangers briefed Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on the latest round of violence, which has claimed 26 lives in just three days, but their recommendations left a lot to be desired. They resorted to the familiar fallback of banning pillion riding in the city, a move that causes a lot of inconvenience to citizens but does nothing to stop murderers. The law-enforcement officials also recommended imposing Section 144 in Karachi but that draconian law can, at best, calm things down for a couple of days. The Rangers operation in the city has now been going on for some months; if a ban on political gatherings is all they have to offer then it is clear that their mission has little chance of success. Karachi needs better than to suffer through an archaic law that has somehow survived the colonial era and which serves only to stifle genuine dissent and political activity rather than violence.

The recent violence should lead the Rangers to have second thoughts about the success of their operation. Their action did lead to a temporary and small reduction in violence, but it now seems that other groups with violent tendencies were simply biding their time. The fault isn’t entirely that of the law-enforcement agencies. The mainstream political parties, who were too busy fighting each other to note outside threats and tackle them, deserve a lot of scorn too. They are the ones who created and tolerated a thriving gun culture in the city. That they no longer have a monopoly on the guns and that extremist groups are now turning them on the residents of Karachi should not be surprising. It is also time to examine in detail quite what has gone wrong. We have seen a failure to manage Karachi for far too many years. We simply cannot afford to see such a situation continue given the space it allows for unlawful elements to carry out the murders that are inflicted again and again on all citizens and the mayhem that arises as a result of these.