Has “Someone” Gone Mad Again?

Once again another operation has been launched against MQM and its voters. The Rangers and Police conducted raids in different areas of the city, commonly known as MQM supporting areas, and arrested hundreds of MQM workers and supporters. The MQM`s former member of Sindh Assembly, Nadeem Hashmi was also included in them.

Before any operation could have been conducted, it had been mutually decided in the meeting of all the stake holders that a committee would be formed in order to monitor the targeted operation so that it could not be politicized. However, neither the monitoring committee was set up, nor the targeted operations could become non-politicized. In contrast to it, the targeted operation has turned into a politically and ethnically targeted. In other words, the cat has come out of its bag. The raids and arrests are on their peak in Urdu speaking areas during which very insulting attitude is adopted against not only the people arrested, but also with their family members including the women. 

The question is, will such biased acts of the LEA`s not increase hatred in the country? 

Last year, when, due to the internal conflicts with the PAC`s Uzair Jan Baloch, the Police operation was initiated in Liyari, the type of militant resistant came up, it was an eye opener for the entire Pakistani nation. According to the media reports, the Police altogether failed to enter the main areas of Liyari ever after a week despite utilizing its hundreds of policemen for the purpose. 

The people, having general knowledge of the Pakistani politics, are fully aware that MQM has been the 2nd most popular party of Sindh and the only majority party in the Urban Sindh especially of Karachi for more than thirty years.

But, despite this fact, MQM has been facing the charge of controlling the whole city through its allegedly militant wing. All the political as well as the religious parties had been beating the drum of the same all over the country during the last thirty years. The on-going operation against is also the result of the same charge.

Taking into account the resistance from the PAC in Liyari, that is less than 5% of the city, can we imagine the level of militant resistance that MQM could have showed in 1992 against the Army operation, if it really had been running any militant wings? Moreover, could the law-enforcement agencies and the Haqiqi group have managed to enter the MQM constituencies so easily if MQM had decided to resist like the way Liyari`s Gangsters` (PAC) did in Liyari?

If all the charges of militancy on MQM were true, would any Army Brigadier have claimed, in the news conference just after a couple of days of the operation at Liquatabad Chowk, that they had cleared Karachi??

If MQM had utilized its alleged militant wings, as the anchorpersons, columnists, analysts and its political rivals blame, from its constituencies against the operation, what sort of resistance would have taken place then? How many days, weeks or months would the Haqiqs` and the law-enforcement agencies have take to enter those areas (if they had really somehow managed to go in)?

Thanks to God that MQM is altogether different from its negatively propagated image. All the credit for avoiding the viciously planned bloodshed in Karachi on 19th June, 1992 goes to the Quaid-e-Tehreek Altaf Hussain who appealed to his workers and supporters to leave their areas and go underground saying, “If an Army General has gone made due to prejudice and has brought the army onto the Urdu speaking community, should I also behave like him?” All these facts are sufficient to easily nullify the charges of militancy on MQM. 

But, unfortunately, once again some “DG”, “IG”, “AIG” and “DIG” seem to have gone made because of the ethnic bias and have brought the forces onto MQM and the Urdu speaking community. No one is raising voice on the one more phase of oppression against MQM. There looks to be the death`s silence on how the Urdu speaking community being ethnically victimized. 

Last year when the Police was facing the worst form of resistance from the PAC`s gangsters, different political and religious parties not only expressed their serious concerns over the Police operation in Liyari, but especially Jamat-e-Islami held protests on it. The question is, when the Pakistani political and religious parties can raise their voice on that operation despite the fierce gorilla type resistance from the PAC terrorists, why do they not speak up on the victimization of the Urdu speaking arrears from where not a single incident of any resistance has been reported? Is that not the reflection of the bias that these parties are expressing towards the Karachi-ites? 

In fact, it is the need of the hour that, after the fall of Dhaka in 1971, all the people and parties learning a lesson from the past, mus keep themselves away from all sorts of political, ethnic, sectarian as well as the religious bias and think impartially. Otherwise the history will not take any time to repeat itself.