Did Pakistani military bomb Mohajirs?

Salim Chohan likes to mention in every 10th post that Pakistani military bombed Mohajirs in the action against them. This is a gross exaggeration.

I was working in Karachi on my 1st job in Pakistan during the time military operation was conducted against MQM. I distinctly recall the MQM - military confrontation. It was a non-event.

First of all, the truth is that the rebellion was started by the military wing of the MQM, not that action was launched against them by the military first. Just two months before the operation was launched, I was flying from Peshawar to Karachi when I met this next passenger, who turned out to be a leading MQM activist. After a few exchanges of views on Afghan war, Mujahideens, pathans and the NWFP, we became quite friendly. We discussed politics, the MQMs rebellious stance and its falling out both with ML Nawaz and PPP. And then he told me something that I always wondered about. He actually disclosed the day and time when MQM would begin its rebellion in Karachi. I recall that I was pretty excited about possibility of seeing military resistance to PPP’s Government.

And then it happened, exactly on the date the gentleman had told me (I know his name and the last time I mentioned it to an MQM worker in 1998, he told me he was in lock up for a long time and then released. He is currently running a successful textile small business in Karachi). MQMs militants were entrenched in their strongholds eyeing the military jawans. There was terrific newspaper coverage. We all waited for the confrontation. MQM supporters in my office used to tell me its going to be mothers of all battles.

However, when the final confrontation time came, all the MQM militants disappeared. There was no fight worth its mention.
Totally disappointed, I confronted the MQM supporters in my office on what happened to the militants.

“Achha hua dafaa ho gaye jee. Unhon nay hamari jan azaab main daal dee thee”, was the reply.

On enquiring further, they said,” The SOBs asked us to keep our front entrance and backyard doors open all the time so that they could run through our homes from one galli to the other. Hamareey maon aur behnon kee bay perdagee ho rahee thee jee”.

From then onwards, it was Rangers pursuing the militants. Most of them went underground. Those who were cornered died most cowardly deaths. Eye witnesses told me that one of the claimed most courageous, when cornered, hid behind his married sister in her home in North Karachi and begged for mercy.

My final take from all this – people who collectively have never been militants should not take on guns. Mohajirs are Pakistan’s brains and minds. They should lead us in managing businesses, in educating us, in making scientific and engineering wonders, etc.

I recall that my mother in Mardan used to tell me to make friends with “Hindustanis”. She used to say, “They are educated people and if you want to learn good ways, learn from them”. It was on her advice that my father made me commute every single day from Mardan to Peshawar to attend school so that I could find students from other ethnic groups.

It was my mother’s advice that actually led me to meet with Syed Fawad Ali Shah, who had a background of ‘twice Mohajir’ who I wrote about in my previous iLogs. He was twice Mohajir, because his parents migrated from Bhopal to East Pakistan and then from BD to Pakistan in 1972.