PAKISTAN PERMANENT CRISIS
IN SINDH, by
Ambreen Agha
…Violence in Karachi has become
so commonplace that reports of ever more gruesome excesses against the citizens
are usually taken in the stride… — Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), January 9, 2014.
At
least 61 Shias were killed and more than 50 others were injured in a bomb
attack on Karbala-e-Moalla Imambargah (Shia place of commemoration) in the
Lakhidar area of Shikarpur District in the Sindh Province on January 30, 2015.
More than 300 worshippers were inside the double-storey compound of the
Imambargah and the prayer leader, Maulvi Tanveer Hussain Shah, was delivering
the Friday sermon when the bomb exploded. The ‘spokesman’ of Jundullah, a
splinter faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ahmed Marwat, declared,
“We claim responsibility for attack on Shias in Shikarpur very happily. Our
target was the Shia community… They are our enemies.”
On December 22, 2014, a
Police team of District Malir killed 13 al Qaeda and TTP terrorists during a
shootout in the Deluxe Town bungalows of the Sohrab Goth area in Gadap Town,
Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. However, TTP ‘commander’ Khan Zaman
Mehsud and some of his associates managed to flee under the cover of fire.
According to partial
data compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Sindh has already recorded
133 fatalities in 2015, including 99 civilians, nine Security Force (SF)
personnel and 25 terrorists in 2015 (data till January 31, 2015) and remains
the second worst terrorism-affected region across Pakistan in terms of such
fatalities. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) ranks first, with
249 killed, including nine civilians, 15 SF personnel and 225 terrorists.
Sindh,
however, has recorded the highest number of civilian fatalities, at 99, over
this period, followed by 12 in Punjab, nine each in Balochistan and FATA, and
eight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
According
to SATP data, this has been the trend since 2011, with Sindh ranking second
worst across Pakistan in terms of overall fatalities (after FATA), while
recording the highest number of civilian fatalities in terrorist violence.
Terrorist attacks, sectarian and political violence, and gang wars are the
three patterns of violence that dominate Sindh.
Sindh
recorded 1,180 fatalities, including 734 civilians, 128 SF personnel and 318
terrorists in 2014; adding to 1,668 such fatalities, including 1,285 civilians,
156 SF personnel and 227 terrorists in 2013. There were 1,215 incidents of
killing in 2014, and 728 such incidents in 2013. There were 76 major incidents
(each involving three or more fatalities) in 2014, resulting in 375 fatalities;
in addition to 56 such incidents and 282 resultant fatalities in 2013. Incidents
of bomb blasts and resultant fatalities in 2014 stood at 72 and 61,
respectively. There were 122 such incidents and 193 resultant fatalities in
2013.
Meanwhile,
as in previous years, Karachi remained the worst affected among Sindh’s 23
Districts. Of the total of 1,180 fatalities in Sindh through 2014, at least
1,135 fatalities (96.18 per cent) were registered in Karachi alone, followed by
13 in Hyderabad District, 12 in Kashmore, six in Jacobabad, five in Khairpur,
four in Sukkur, two each in Jamshoro and Ghotki, and one in Mirpurkhas.
The
worsening situation in Karachi has been exacerbated by the presence of a wide
range of sectarian-terrorist outfits operating in the city. These prominently
include TTP, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba-Pakistan (SSP), Jundullah,
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Sunni Tehreek (ST) and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP),
among many others. Unsurprisingly, barring two fatalities in Hyderabad District
and one in Mirpurkhas, all 83 killings in 52 sectarian attacks in Sindh Province
occurred in Karachi alone.
Significantly,
on January 30, 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its World Report 2015 noted
that violent attacks on religious minorities rose significantly in 2014, as
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Government failed to ensure religious freedoms.
HRW Deputy Asia Director Phelim Kine, in a stinging observation, noted,
Pakistan’s
Government did little in 2014 to stop the rising toll of killings and
repression by extremist groups that target religious minorities…The Government
is failing at the most basic duty of government — to protect the safety of its
citizens and enforce rule of law.
Targeted
political killings have also been a rising trend in the provincial capital.
Activists of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
(MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have been the principal targets, with
a total of 391 activists of these parties, including 221 of MQM, 106 of ANP,
and 64 of PPP, killed since 2011. 46 of these, including 30 MQM, and eight each
of ANP and PPP, were killed in 2014 alone. Moreover, political parties have
also drawn the ire of TTP and its splinter groups. On November 21, 2014, at
least 23 people, including three MQM Members of Provincial Assembly (MPA) were
injured in a blast at a MQM membership camp in Orangi Town, Karachi.
TTP-Jama’at-ul-Ahrar (TTP-JuA) ‘spokesman’ Ehsanullah Ehsan while claiming
responsibility for the attack on his Twitter account, declared that the attack
on MQM was part of the drive against ANP, MQM, PPP and Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N), and warned, further, that such attacks on these parties
would continue.
In
another such attack, on November 23, 2014, the District West President of the
ANP, Dr. Ziauddin (50), was shot dead while travelling back to his home from
the mosque after offering Isha (evening) prayers in Frontier Morr of Orangi
Town. TTP-Hakeemullah Mehsud group ‘commander’ Gilaman Mehsud claimed
responsibility for Ziauddin’s assassination, and warned, “Since ANP is a
secular party, which is aiding the law enforcers in arresting TTP operatives in
Karachi, they are attacking its leadership and will continue to do so in
future.” Ziauddin had earlier been threatened and attacked by TTP. On September
28, 2013, he had escaped a bomb attack outside his residence in Frontier Morr.
The attack was the result of non-compliance to an extortion demand of PKR 1
million by TTP. The TTP had, moreover, demanded that he quit ANP, and had
warned him of dire consequences if he did not comply.
Turf
wars between two prominent criminal gangs, the Uzair Baloch-led People’s Amn
Committee (PAC, People’s Peace Committee) and the Ghaffar Zikri-led Lyari gang,
and their multiple local wings, are another aspect of the endemic violence in
Karachi. Despite being banned, these criminal formations continue to operate
with the support of their political patrons. The PAC is alleged to be supported
by PPP and the Zikri group operates in collusion with MQM.
In
the most recent targeted operation against the gangsters, on February 1, 2015,
SFs killed five criminals in an encounter in the Salar Goth area of Malir Town
in Karachi. They were identified as Akbar Maliri, Khalid Lashari, Sheraz
Ibrahim aka Comrade of Malir, Gulab Hasan aka Peero, and Yousuf Pathan. Akbar
Maliri, was stated to be the main character in the gang warfare in parts of
Malir and belonged to the Uzair Baloch group. Maliri was also allegedly
involved in a grenade attack at a ground near Salar Goth on January 26, 2015,
in which a man was killed and another 12 were injured. These gangsters were
described as “the symbol of terror in the city” and had been involved in
numerous murders and other crimes.
The
cumulative impact of these multiple patterns of violence has made Karachi “the
most dangerous megacity” in the world, according to a Foreign Policy report.
The report cited a murder rate of 12.3 per 100,000 residents, “some 25 per cent
higher than any other major city”.
Fearing
a spill-over of violence into other parts of the Province, Sindh Chief Minister
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, had cautioned, on February 24, 2014, “Karachi-like
terrorism must not hit other parts of Sindh. Terrorism should not make its way
into the interior of Sindh with the intensity witnessed in Karachi.”
Significantly, Hyderabad, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Khairpur Districts had each
witnessed one major incident in 2014. On July 6, 2014, at least three Policemen
were killed and two others were injured by unidentified assailants in Latifabad
area of Hyderabad city of Hyderabad District. A major incident occurred in Jacobabad
District on February 16, 2014, when two coaches of the Peshawar-bound Khushhal
Khan Khattak Express derailed after a bomb attack on the tracks near a canal in
Thull town of the District. Six people, including four children, were killed
and more than 35 were injured. In Kashmore, at least 10 terrorists were killed
while some 50 suspects were arrested, when SFs launched an operation in Jani
Bheeri village on June 4, 2014. The extremists killed in the operation were
involved in the killing of two Rangers near the Bhittai Colony Road in the
limits of the Tangwani Police Station in Kandhkot town of the District, on June
3, 2014. In another encounter in Khairpur District, Police shot dead four
alleged abductors and safely rescued the hostage, Dr Riaz Bhatti, on December
21, 2014. These attacks indicate the dispersion of the TTP in other parts of
Sindh, potentially creating a far greater challenge. In 2013, only two
Districts – Hyderabad and Sukkur – had each witnessed one major incident.
In
the face of violence and targeted murders, the Federal Government launched a
Rangers-led targeted operation against militants and criminals operating in
Karachi on September 5, 2013. The operation still continues, but has had little
impact on overall security. Assessing the law and order situation in Karachi, a
fact-finding mission of HRCP concluded, on July 21, 2014, that the operation
launched in September 2013 had failed, and that the “objectives of the
operation have not been met”. HRCP Secretary General I.A. Rehman lamented that
the operation had been launched on an “ad hoc basis without appropriate
planning,” and noted,
Throughout
the operation nothing has been done to enhance the capacity of the Police, with
the result that the ad hoc measure has essentially become open-ended and
indefinite. A working chemistry that should have been there between the Police
and Rangers was still missing. The Police were not conducting any operation in
Karachi but were merely engaging in proactive policing.
Meanwhile,
authorities have been to struggle unsuccessfully to de-weaponize Karachi since
1993. Ironically, on March 30, 2014, in the aftermath of rising incidents of
targeted killings of doctors in Karachi, the administration agreed that all
doctors would be facilitated to secure weapons’ licenses for their personal
protection and would be trained in the proper use of weapons. Doctors would
also be allowed to carry their weapons without any legal or administrative
hindrance. In an article published in The News on February 1, 2015, journalist
Syed Arfeen, observed,
The
fragile law and order scenario has developed a potential market for illegal
arms and ammunition. It is a huge market spanning from (sic) warlords to
private militias, militant organisations to groups affiliated to political
parties, drug peddlers to land grabbers. Everyone needs a toy to establish its
(sic) authority — and the state and the kingpins of illegal weapons provide
this pivotal service at their doorstep.
Karachi
has been in a state of crisis for decades now. Its increasing fragility has the
potential of transforming into a civil war, engulfing the entire Province, and
dispersing into the country at large. The latest incident at Shikarpur
demonstrates the increasing penetration of TTP and its murderous factions into
other Districts of Sindh.
It
is, once again, the criminalization of the state in Pakistan, and the
unwillingness to abandon Islamist extremism and terrorism as instruments of
state policy, that have resulted in the unbridled and self-destructive violence
in Sindh. With the consolidation of the power bases of various armed extremist
formations in Karachi – and progressively in other areas of Sindh – the
situation is bound to deteriorate further.
*Ambreen Agha
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
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