People ask what happened in Karachi yesterday. Friends and comrades abroad ask how Karachi suddenly descended into violence, chaos and bloodshed.
What can one tell them?
The people have been betrayed. Again.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan was due to arrive in Karachi yesterday. Opposition political parties were to receieve him at the airport.
The pro-government MQM unleashed a wave of violence upon Kararchi, and by all indications, it is far from over as of now.
And all this happened while more than 15000 police and Rangers were deployed in the city.
Read about it here.
Show me the Pakistani who would not shudder with horror upon seeing this:
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How many Pakistanis, despite having the power and authority to intervene, would still stand back and allow chaos and violence to grip the streets of Karachi?
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How many children of this land would just…let it happen?
How many, that is, except the authorities?
Urooj, who works with Daily Times (and was out reporting in Karachi yesterday) described her experiences in great detail. I am most indebted to her for her account, which you may read in full at the end of this post.
Urooj describes how the police responded to her request for help in the middle of all the shooting:
All of a sudden we heard shots all around us, and we were, like, hmmm which way do we go now — because if those idiots had entered the street that Anis (works at Aaj TV) and I were standing in, the two of us would’ve been sitting ducks for them. Short of climbing the walls and entering one of the houses around, there really was no other place for us to go to. And then along came a police mobile. I signaled for it to stop and asked them which way to go. Here’s the conversation that took place:
uzi: Bhai saheb which way do we go?
police: Where do you want to get to?
uzi: The quaid’s mazaar.
police: Take any street at all!
uzi: Yes I know THAT, but do you not hear the firing all around? What I meant to ask was, which way do we take to get there in one piece?
police: You can be killed wherever you go. Choose your place. HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
uzi: *lets loose a bunch of high-level expletives, turns around and walks off*
Note: uzi = Urooj
Frankly, this account shocked me. We all saw TV footage of the violence. No police or Rangers were visible on our screens.
But as Urooj’s experience proves, the police refused to do anything to help people even when they were present on the scene!
I have to ask you:
If the authorities tell you to choose where you want to die, in the middle of a mini civil-war, what do you do? Where do you go?
I’m usually not one to engage in finger-pointing too fast, but there is no other explanation here. The responsibility for this carnage rests solely on the shoulders of the MQM thugs. Even on Friday night, I could see that they were up to something.
On the evening of Friday, May the 11th, large containers were brought into the city and placed across roads in order to block major roads. Political activists belonging to the MQM set up road-blocks at strategic points throughout the city, including the Shara-e-Faisal.
The MQM decided to hold its pro-government rally on the very same day as the arrival of the Chief Justice in Karachi – which in effect ensured that a clash would take place. Furthermore, the MQM itself started the violence, by shooting dead two opposition activists earlier in the morning of Saturday, May the 12th.
And later on Saturday morning, as MQM activists came face to face with protesting opposition members, shoot-outs started all over the city. The violence continued well into the evening, and among the dead were two ambulance drivers. Ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded, and at times, rival groups pulled wounded opponents from ambulances to shoot them.
And in the midst of this bloodbath, the police and Rangers, stood and watched. Thousands of them stood and watched.
Where were the law-enforcers anyway? Daily Times has an answer.
But enough of this. I’ve said what I wanted to say.
Here is the eye-witness account of Urooj, who was out reporting on these tragic events on Saturday:
Dear all,ThanQ loads @ everyone who called yesterday and today, and messaged and emailed — it meant a lot to me. : ) I’m sorry I couldn’t reply to everyone individually — yesterday I was busy, trying to “get-the-story” and then trying to file my story and editing other shit.Khair, the point is, yes, I’m okay, and so is everyone else that I know — here’s hoping that everyone else that you know in Karachi is fine too.What happened here yesterday was insanity (for want of any other word). To say that I’m still in shock would be appropriate. And why wouldn’t I be? My city bled yesterday, right in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t do a thing to help. A teeming metropolitan of 160 million people was held hostage by a bunch of jackasses.
According to official figures, 34 people lost their lives in the May 12 carnage. The actual number, of course, will be higher — there were bodies lying at every street intersection. We picked up a whole bunch of them and put them inside police mobiles parked nearby.
Speaking of the police and the Pakistan Rangers: ROT, ASSHOLES! ROT!!! They did NOTHING! They stood around and LOITERED while my city was tainted with blood. A friend and I got stuck in a street around the Aaj TV building (at around 06:00 p.m.) — we could hear shots being fired from that direction, and we had to get out to the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mausoleum (mazaar). All of a sudden we heard shots all around us, and we were, like, hmmm which way do we go now — because if those idiots had entered the street that Anis (works at Aaj tV) and I were standing in, the two of us would’ve been sitting ducks for them. Short of climbing the walls and entering one of the houses around, there really was no other place for us to go to. And then along came a police mobile. I signalled for it to stop and asked them which way to go. Here’s the conversation that took place:
uzi: Bhai saheb which way do we go?
police: Where do you want to get to?
uzi: The quaid’s mazaar.
police: Take any street at all!
uzi: Yes I know THAT, but do you not hear the firing all around? What I meant to ask was, which way do we take to get there in one piece?
police: You can be killed wherever you go. Choose your place. HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
uzi: (lets loose a bunch of high-level expletives, turns around and walks off).My reporting assignment was from the Quaid’s mausoleum (at M.A. Jinnah road) and in the surrounding areas — Guru Mandir, etc. After Shahrah-e-Faisal (which incidentally, is also one of our major business districts), the areas I was covering were the second bloodiest yesterday. The mausoleum is 15-20 mins ki drive from my house. Yesterday, however, it took me and the cab driver 50 minutes — and even then he couldn’t go any further than Kashmir Road (near Shahrah-e-Faisal). I had to walk to the Mausoleum from there. This was at 01:00 p.m. On the way (while walking), I was stopped by an MQM-goon. My press card was in my pocket.
MQM goon: Where are you coming from?
uzi: Why do you have to know?
MQM goon: Where are you going?
uzi: Why do you have to know?
MQM goon: (takes out a TT and places it on uzi’s forehead — NOT the temple, the FOREHEAD).
uzi: I’m a journalist.
MQM goon: press card?
uzi: (fishes out press card and shows it).
MQM goon: Go!
From then on, I made sure my press card was firmly stuck to my collar and was clearly visible.
Later, around 05:00 p.m. Anis and I were crossing a road to get to the Rangers Headquarters in Dawood College (DCET). A car chockfull of ammunition passed in front of us, stopped, backed up and stopped in front of us, Kalashnikovs pointing at the two of us from the windows. We showed our press cards and the car moved on. NEVER in my LIFE have I felt more grateful to my press card than I did yesterday.
A lot more happened. The shit at Aaj TV, etc etc. Karachi was a war zone yesterday. It looks deserted today, and my heart bleeds just to look at it. Helplessness, coupled with rage. Infinite rage, is what we felt — are still feeling.
The only good thing that happened yesterday was the fact that I got to ride a bike. The editors somehow got to know that I’m stuck at Guru Mandir and can’t get out. They called me up and told me to get to the Quaid’s mausoleum and to wait for Abbas bhai (one of our senior reporters). They were sending him on a bike to pick me up. You couldn’t use a car etc, because on a bike your press card was visible, and that was a kind of immunity. In a car or a van, they’d shoot at you on sight. So yeah, I got to ride pillion on a bike, and I didn’t sit sideways either, like women usually do here.
I sat like guys usually do — “handsfree mode.”
Love,
~ UZi
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Furthermore, Urooj also wrote out an account of how government goons fired shots at Aaj TV for hours, and no authorities raised a finger to help the people trapped in the news office.
Here is the un-edited version of what she wrote (it was published in the Daily Times in a much more watered-down form):
KARACHI: A week after forcibly being taken off-air along with three other private television networks, Aaj TV came under fire again on Saturday – literally, this time around.The Aaj TV offices are located in the Business Recorder House, right at the edge of Business Recorder Road (near Guru Mandir). The firing started soon after 01:30 p.m., a while before the MQM rally, led by City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, MQM Rabita Committee Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar and others, was scheduled to pass through the area to reach Tibet Centre.Interestingly, the ammunition used was not the kind usually carried by street side ruffians. Heavy ammunition was used, including repeaters, and the entire incident appeared to be extremely well planned. Cars filled with ammunition were parked around the area, and a steady supply was maintained for more than five hours. Sources within the television station said that bullets were even embedded in the inner walls of the channel’s newsroom – souvenirs from the day when a teeming metropolitan was forcibly converted into a war zone.“Bibi ji, if these people don’t consider the personnel of Aaj TV as their saathis and bhais and fellow residents of the city, anything can be expected from them,” the Pakistan Rangers head posted at the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum told Daily Times. His name has been withheld for obvious security reasons.
When asked why the Rangers were not taking any action even an hour-and-a-half after the shooting had started, the security personnel deployed at the Mausoleum said that they were waiting for orders from higher-ups. “We’re sorry, but our hands are tied. Had it been up to us, we would have taken action right now. An APC has been dispatched for the location from our headquarters at the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET),” he said.
Daily Times then visited the Rangers headquarters at the DCET. “Our higher-ups are not available here right now,” officials present there said. “All of our personnel have been sent to deal with the situation at Aaj TV.”
Interestingly, all of the personnel supposedly dispatched to handle “the situation at Aaj TV” had in the meantime gone to the Quaid’s mausoleum and parked their vehicles there. This was two and a half hours after the firing on Business Recorded House had begun.
At 05:30 p.m., four hours after the firing started, the Rangers PRO, Capt. Fazal, told Daily Times that a meeting had “just been convened to discuss the situation.” He did not say why security officials had waited for four hours before beginning to think about what to do.
The attackers had initially lined the street in front of the Aaj TV offices. Later, after setting fire to the channel’s parking lot, they climbed on top of the surrounding buildings and continued to shoot from there. In the meantime, Rangers and area police continued to be helpless. They could, however, be given the benefit of doubt for one reason: according to the rules of urban combat, they are not allowed to shoot at anyone if there are civilians present behind them (in this case, the MQM rally at Tibet Centre). This has, however, never deterred Karachi’s trigger-happy cops before, who have been known to shoot at alleged dacoits and ruffians during encounters, civilians around or no civilians around.
Incidentally, the firing on Aaj TV started soon after the channel aired some “objectionable footage” live. One of the MQM rallies had been scheduled to pass through Patel Para to reach Guru Mandir, and from there, to Tibet Centre. On the way, however, the participants of the rally clashed with some Pathan and Baloch groups near Business Recorder House. Aaj TV recorded the clash, and telecast it. The footage showed some young men holding MQM flags in one hand and weapons in the other. These weapons were then fired at the opponent groups. All of this was shown on TV. Soon after this, Aaj TV came under fire.
Interestingly, while the TV channel was under fire, the MQM rally led by Jalil and Dr Sattar walked past the Quaid’s mausoleum on its way to Tibet Centre. No one in the party leadership even so much as turned around to ask who so many bullets were being fired in the next street, and why.
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This wasn’t just a display of callous disregard for innocent lives.
It was a case of complicity…something for which we will not forgive MQM or the military regime.
I hope our people will find the strength, patience and courage to stand firm in the face of such atrocities.
Filed under: General bakwaas, Pakistani politics
It is like another world
This sounds like a warzone. I cant think of this taking place in Brisbane.
I can really appreciate how much all this hurts you.
Officially, 40 dead!
“Speaking of the police and the Pakistan Rangers: ROT, ASSHOLES! ROT!!!” ~ UZi (a young women journalist in Pakistan)
What can we say?
Here is a state organised fascist onslaught on a “democratic” movement while the government’s “democratic” imperialist backers do nothing.
Now the government issues orders to “shoot on sight” anyone who responds to this slaughter.
We in Europe and North America in particular must redouble our efforts to expose this foule blood drenched hypocrisy.
Defeat the imperialist warmongers!
i was there and this is my story…..
Today, i experienced a form of Fascism which maybe the citizens of
France may have experienced at the hands of the Third Reich of Hitler’s Nazi (National Socialist) Forces. I was coming from Islamabad (I had gone there to sort out my visa issues from the U.S embassy there)to Karachi on a flight at about 12 o clock at night (or Morning really). The Plane took off at Isl airport at time and I reached Karachi at 2 o clock in the morning. Little did I knew at that time that I would have a firsthand experience of why the highly educated Liberal and Modern Elite as well as non elite sane people call the MQM people “Fascists”. I had known about the MQM’s Terrorist activities since I was a child but today i was to experience it personally. All the passengers got off the airport and we came out into the drive passageway where i called my folks who told me that they could not pick me up as the MQM (which heads the city government in Karachi) had blocked all roads coming into the airport because they wanted to block the chief justice (who was to be reaching Karachi the following morning) and his supporters from reaching there. All the Taxis and all forms of other public transport had been forcibly stopped by the MQM (read Altaf the blind boar’s neonazis). We were told that we would probably have to wait outside the airport for the entire night and hope for the God of light, Apollo to bring some good news in the morning as he would travel across the sky in his flying chariot bathing the land in life giving sunshine. So I spent my entire night sitting on the drive in of the Airport. There I met an engineer from Lahore who was working in an offline oil well off the coast of Karachi, a lawyer from Lahore, as well as many other highly educated people. They were all cursing the MQM and saying how could a party being in the government block access to the biggest international airport
of the country and treat its citizens as animals?
I think after an hour with me, many of them previously being neutral
must have become anti-MQM to the core. (I learnt the art of
brainwashing from my Jewish friends on the Net) Some of the people who were relatives of bigwigs in the MQM or the Army left the airport as they were picked up by private cars escorted by police convoys. I talked to many foreigners from different countries and they were horrified to learn that the Govt treats its citizens like that here in Karachi, once the city of lights (the seeds of whose destruction were sown by the dictator Ayub Khan when he shifted the capital to Islamabad which were reaped by the Zia-ul-haq {read Kafir-ul-haq} when he banned liberal elements here and made the MQM via the ISI) At 6 o clock I decided to walk to my home (which is a huge distance away)from the airport with my luggage and set off on foot. So i walked and i walked until i came to a stretch of the sharea-Faisal where i found a rickshaw. I told him to take me to PECHS and he agreed. But just as he had covered a 5 minutes distance, we came to an MQM barricade where emaciated moustached pan chewing young men on bikes were roaming around One of my best friends from Dow, Dr Owais’s Khala ,Fauzia Wahab who is a senator was right about the MQM when she said once the the Basic workers of MQM are “Ghundas of the Mohalla”. The semi-educated men (Some people are under the impression that the MQM since they are against the religious right are liberal but its a blatant lie. They are “Cultural conservatives” to the core. You must have noticed how all these dumb conservatives are always carrying out activities like the “Milad Sharif” (which I call a disco Mullah’s Music Concert-Lol) and weird sort of dumb conservative garbage esp at rabi-ul-awal and Moharram. (I nick named one of MQM’s minister, Aamir Liaqut hussain “Mullah Swine” {meaning pig}. These cultural conservatives recently gave death threats to A.Cowesjee, the libertarian columnist of dawn. All the highly educated liberal
elite know that the MQM is crap. Any way the “Bhayas” stopped the
rickshaw as well as all other cars wanting to go into the city as they were probably instructed by some half bred neanderthal troglodyte like Farooq Sattar or Baber Ghauri or some other corrupt swine. The rickshaw wala was telling me that these people are bastards. No one supports them, they are terrorists, they come here and take away our vehicles on gun point, they win the elections by rigging them. (and he was a working class Urdu speaking fellow). I walked some miles until i came to Rashid Minhas road near Karsaz where I got on another Rickshaw. The pathan in that one had nothing but abuse for the MQM. He said that “bhai sahib, Yeh Zulm hey, yeh loog ghunday hain, ainhoon ney pooray sheher ko yarghamal bana key rakha howa hey. I phoned my uncle from there who told me that the whole Sharae-faisal is closed till Metropole so go to the National Stadium where your cousin would pick you up in his car and drop you off at your home. Finally I reached home at about 9 o clock. I was once a supporter of Musharraf but slowly and surely that support for him is vanishing in my heart. The Army must have known what these fucking fascist bastards planned and they let them get ahead with it? To close off an international airport like that is not a small thing. Believe me if such a thing were to happen in a western country, the president and all other bigwigs would be tried in court for civil crimes. I think we need a Brutus of this era like the one who stabbed Caesar in the back and brought an end to the dictatorship, making Rome a republic once more.
[Quote]….carrying out activities like the “Milad Sharif” (which I call a disco Mullah’s Music Concert-Lol) and weird sort of dumb conservative garbage esp at rabi-ul-awal and Moharram. [unquote]
Dr. Kublai Khan Zai…ur name manifests that u r nothing but a WAHABI SON OF A BITCH-CUM-MOTHERFUCKER SWINE!
i hate MQM but the way u insulted muslims by saying bad thing abt milad & muharram u must be a ZIONIST to core….YOU SHIT EATING PIG! u r one of those people who wud sell their mothers to ANGREZ GORAS if comes a need & fuck their own sister out of lust…you scum of this earth WAHABI GANDU!!
MQM is the most shameless group of ppl ever!
How dare you people insult the MQM and Quaid-e-Tehrik, Altaf Bhai?
“Jo Quaid ka Ghadaar hey woh moot ka haqdaar hey”
Jiey Mahajir!!!
Kid cool,
I’ll assume you’re joking.
Perhaps at some stage in the 80s or 90s, MQM genuinely stood for the rights of the Muhajir people, but I think that by joining the government they have betrayed everything that they ever stood for. They have now become little more than gangsters, playing upon ethnic politics and serving the interests of the civil-military ruling elite.
The blind hate I see amongst you guys, it makes me wonder just how the hell do you expect Pakistan to be a stable country if you’re so divided. All of you guys whine so much that 12th May was another excuse for you. Carry on whining…
Right, so 12th May was an excuse for us to whine.
And for you, it was…?
2-number politician r trying 2 pull dirty politics game wid simple judical problem.
CJ came 2 khi and saw the ‘tamasha’ of inocents blood from da airport!!!
Shame on CJ and Aitzaz Ahsan, becuz govt. of sind gave full warning of bad situation of khi.
this all happened because of MQM,now time came when ARMY again will tell MQM /APMSO that what they are? and who is altaf hussain. actually they are in inferiority complex. they have nothing in technical fields.
and if this stupid altaf hussain have some guts then he is welcome in pakistan. pak army will tell him who is he?
we are waiting…………………………….
Zaheer, forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I didn’t realize MQM owns Karachi.
What’s wrong with the Chief Justice coming to Karachi and speaking to a gathering of lawyers?
Why should he be barred from travelling on the streets of a city which is very much a part of Pakistan (unless I’m very mistaken)?
TAKE CARE OF WAZIRISTAN N BALOCHISTAN, THIS TIME WE WIL NOT WITH PUNJABIS, THEY HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF THIS BLOODY PAKISTAN BY THEMSELF. INSHALLAH PAKISTAN WILL BE BROKE N WE WILL WELCOME ALL INDIAN MUSLIM TO LIVE IN KARACHI, SINDH N BALOCHISTAN
GOD BLESS ALTAF BHAI
PANJABION APNEY KEAY KA PHAL KHAO, JO BOYA THA WOHI KATOGEY
KAHAN HEY NASEER ULLAH BABAR KUTTA
USKO BHEJO WAZIRISTAN
Wow!
Easy on the caps, my friend.