Either you are involved or quite incompetent!

 

Once again Karachi is on the target point of target killers. Dozens of innocent people including son in-law of Allama Talib Johri, son of Allama Abbas Kumeli and son-in-law of Mufti Naeem have become the victims of the recent weave of killings. The murder of Haider Abbas Rizvi`s co-coordinator was an addition to them. All these killings took place in the city despite the heavy deployment of law-enforcement agencies. The killings so suspiciously take place that it clearly looks as if they are being controlled trough an on/off-switch. The question is, why have the law-enforcement agencies altogether failed to stop the on-going game of death?

The heads of LEA`s give an excuse saying that the issue of Karachi is not of today, but is of 80`s. Yes, this is true! But, it is also true that the legacy of operations in Karachi is also of 80`s. From Sohrab Goth operation to the present one, there is a complete series of the same. Army and Rangers operations of 90`s were the most important phases of this series. The Rangers` presence in Karachi is since the same decade. Then, why has peace not been restored yet in the city?

LEA`s have commonly defend themselves also complaining about being given less authorities as well as facing “political pressure” on their way. These seem to be lame excuses, nothing else. Truly speaking, almost all the political and religious parties of the country including PPP, PML-N, JI and ANP have always demanded a ruthless action in Karachi believing that it would definitely hit MQM like in the past. So, there has never been any opposition of operations from the MQM`s rivals.

As far as MQM is concerned, it has, despite its serious reservations, extended political support to all those actions which were announced to be taken for the sake of bringing peace in the city. Of course, it was the same MQM which had demanded to bring Army to Karachi to curb the miscreants. For ensuring peace in Karachi, it altogether forgot about the 92`s military operation which was mainly planned to rush MQM. Now the question is, when MQM has been politically backing all the actions in Karachi in spite of being cheated again and again from the state, then to whose political pressure the LEA`s repeatedly refer as an excuse for their poor performance?

Furthermore, as far as their claim of having insufficient authorities is concerned, the 90`s decade was the reflection of the unlimited declared and undeclared authorities that the Law-enforcement agencies had been given for the operations in Karachi. It is also on record that just after few days the military operation was launched in Karachi in June 92, the army officials held a press conference at Liquatabad Chowk and announced their victory saying, “We have regained the control of Karachi” and “We have cleared the city now”. The question is, did the LEA`s need any more authority when they could use power even to military take over the city and, by force, expel a political party from its constituency?

During the same operations, thousands of MQM workers and supporters were arrested, brutally tortured and then hundreds of them were killed, but not a single personnel or head of the agency involved was ever punished for their crimes against humanity. Even in the current operation too, MQM`s workers and office bearers have gone missing after their arrests and their mutilated dead bodies were found from the surroundings of the city. But, neither any clarification was ever required from the LEA`s, nor was a voice of concern or protest raised from any political or religious party against all that. This very clearly shows that all these operations against MQM have had full administrative and political support. Considering these facts, what else do our LEA`s need to bring peace to the city?

People of Pakistan have not forgotten the last year sectarian violence of Raja Bazar, Rawalpindi on 10th Muharram in which at least a dozen people were killed and over 40 got injured. Due to that incident, it was feared the clashes between the two sectarian groups might spread to other cities as well. But, the administration (believed to be the military establishment) immediately imposed curfew there and put the security on high alert in all the sensitive arrears. As a result, the situation came under control and finally peace was restored. The question is, why don`t the concerned authorities adopt such measures for Karachi too? Why don`t they impose curfew so as to stop any more increase in the death toll? If the proactive approach and the resulted measures were to control the violence and save the lives of people in Pindi, then avoiding the same steps in Karachi does not obviously mean to leave the Karachi-ites on the mercy of killers?   

In the scenario where the government of Pakistani as well as its armed forces were being considered as the strategic partner with US in the war against terrorism for about ten years, the presence of the most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad, raised very serious questions not only regarding the performance, but also over the credibility of the Pakistani armed forces. In this context, referring to the American Authorities, some journalists quoted their off the record remarks to the Pakistani authorities in these words: Either you are involved in sheltering OBL, or are quite incompetent. Perhaps, these were the same remarks or a warning due to which then COAS Gen Kiyani accepted the second option by calling the presence of Bin Laden in Pakistan the failure of his security agencies

Now, taking into account the decades` long-prevailing killings in Karachi despite the heavy deployment of the law-enforcement agencies for years, do the affected Karachi-ites not deserve to make the same remarks to the LEAs`

”Either you are involved in the violence or are quite incompetent?”