Carnage in Karachi

Any government that cannot provide protection and security to its citizens has no right to exist. They deserve proper whipping!. That day is not far away when the US troops would be landing in Pakistan saving the Shias from the Sunnis and the Sunnis from the Shiaas. That`s all what the Muslim Nations are capable of coming down to. Anything else need not be said about screwed up nations. They have their limits. And, the people must either expect those or get the hell out of those systems. Muslim countries including Pakistan have very little respect for human life. They love to be the butchers and like to sacrifice in the name of God more frequently than ordained.

It`s weird to read the shallow arguments on any massacre and not accident that takes place in Pakistan. The natives would go upside down on reading the atrocities taking place in Iraq but when it comes to the internal atrocities and chaos they are helpless to address any of their own issues. Pakistani native in general is completely helpless in the hands of its animalistic system. What`s new ?

I usually stay away from boards that have to do with Pakistan`s internal politics; I do not know enough...but this time it has been different. Because my friends are there and some of them have been directly affected. I may not fully comprehend their anger but I can understand their tears. And I know that despite coping with their immediate concerns, they have tried to keep people informed, people who were travelling...they have taken aside that time to find out and send messages...how can anyone not be moved? You hear displaced voices, voices exhausted...and yet showing concern for someone else somewhere else....

Who is a Shia here? A Sunni?

Do stray comments by a few amount to Indians celebrating such acts? I should think not. But, yes, had my friends not called or messaged me, I would not have known. Even people here who are supposed to know did not know. ``Achha? Kab hua? Ok, theek hai.`` And I spoke with someone who is from Karachi in Mumbai and he too did nto know. When informed, he said, ``Oh, this is a regular thing...koi fik`r ki baat nahin.``

My friends are angry, their eyes are burning, with tear gas and hurt, they are watching inhumanity...yeh fik`r ki baat hai...

It can happen anywhere...and we can react the way we feel. All else is redundant.

Ferozek #2: ``The people who rule and lord over Pakistan have done such a brilliant job of lying that people of Pakistan do not realize that the ``anti-national elements`` are the ones, who hold political office in Pakistan.``

Who exactly are the people who lord over Pakistan? What is the criteria one should use for them? Are the wealthy? Rich? Have access to foreign lands, with foreign qualifications? Do they live in the most posh localities of Pakistan? Do they have access to a language, which the locals cannot speak? Do they participate in political elections, or know elected officials? Do they have friends in high places in the beaurecracy or military? Can they leave the country, anytime they want? Is their income, not tied, directly, with the economy of the country? Is their income, fifty times that of the average local? Are they the ones who have Internet in their homes, and can attend fashion shows in posh hotels, while the rest of the country can barely afford one shalwar kameez?

If this is a good definition, than I would fall into that category. As would you, as would everyone else on Chowk. We are, in fact, the people who lord over Pakistan, if you were to ask the average Pakistani. In cases, which it is not us directly, it is our close friends, cousins etc., who lord over Pakistan.

The problem with intolerance is that everyone practices it, when it suits them, and justifies it somehow or the other. It doesn`t matter whether it is one religion not tolerating another, one sect not tolerating the other, secularists not tolerating maulvis, or maulvis not tolerating NGOs. Or one ethnicity not tolerating another.

The same people who are on the forefront of crying intolerance, justify it quite conveniently when it suits them. Consider the following:

- Aren`t Shias as intolerant of Ahmedis, as Sunnis are of Ahmedis? Where do the Shia leaders stand on declaring Ahmedis non-Muslims? They did justify it, somehow or the other.

- Where do the Shia leaders of Iran (and in future Iraq) stand in treatment of Jews and Christians in their countries (or in Pakistan for that matter)?

- Why are the same individuals who are crying themselves hoarse over the current bomb blast, and the fifteen or so deaths, actually on the forefront of supporting and even cheering the deaths of around 15,000 people in Iraq? Out of whom, one would guess 10,000 or so must have been Shia deaths.

Why do hamidm, tahmad, Irshad Manji, George Bush, arjun_m etc. encourage the USA to kill 10,000 Shias in Iraq, yet go into a fit, when 15 are killed in Pakistan? Is a Shia kiled by a secular American missile any less dead than one killed by a sectarian Sunni bomb?

- Why do people forget about Constitutions when they want to go after anyone with a shalwar above his ankles, yet bring up the same Constitution, when their friends are targeted?

- Why do poeple vote for the same BJP, which openly authorizes the klling of minorities, yet have issues with minorities being targeted in Pakistan?

- Why do people oppose human rights organizations in Kashmir, yet cry for human rights in places like East Pakistan?

- Why do people admire Turkey`s secularism, yet have no issues with its killings of Kurds, or its historical targeting of Armenian Christians?

- Why do American Christians keep bringing up the holocaust, yet are on the forefront of promoting Jews killing Muslims in Palestine?

The answer is simple. It is very very easy to justify one`s bigotry, racism and lack of human rights. Once someone becomes convinced that their idea is correct - be it through religous reasons or secular ones or nationalistic or ethnic ones- then they can find out all kinds of ways to justify anything - even killings. It is a slippery slope.

The individuals who are targeting Shias in Pakistan, are as convinced of their cause, as the American Christian right, and Jewish left, who are targeting Shias in Iraq, and the Al-Qaeda who are targeting Americans, and the Jews who are targeting Muslims in Palestine, and the Turkish Secularists who are targeting Kurds, and the Shia Iranis who are targeting the secularists, and so on, and the Pakistani who killed the Bengalis, and the Indians who are killing the Kashmriis........

The are all convinced they are justifiably promoting their own superior and righteous cause, for the benefit of mankind. And if someone needs to be killed, as tragic as may be, is just collateral damage.

People in glass houses, thus cannot throw stones. We all live in our glass houses. And unless we use one and only one criteria, i.e human rights of others, as our defining line, and stop trying to make the world safe for our religion or our secularism or our natioanalism, we will keep finding ourselves on one side or the other of such killings........

re: omar_r_quraishi # 4

Omar, I will agree that this was an editorial and not an article, but that is a childish distinction to make, given the gravity of editorial`s content.

Omar, if you did not wish to argue with me, then why did you post this editorial? Chowk is an interactive site and what you post here is open to be commented upon. Incidently, Dawn is an elitist news paper and now, you are saying that your opinions are too sacrosant to be debated and should be accepted, and ipso facto, the editorials of Dawn as a dogamtic gospel. This is the arrogance, which is the hallmark of Dawn. I have seen your ilogs and there is nothing original there, except the re-production of your own editorials. Sir, you are really suffering from a serious case of narcissism. It is this sense of narcissism, which deems that Dawn represents the collective conscience of Pakistan. Dawn`s readership is made of officialdom of Pakistan and it is no wonder, that you as an editor and not a reporter of Dawn, are also afflicted with this malady.

What is, incidently, the stated position of Dawn on this issue? I bet the stated position of Dawn is what the governments wants to you write. If that editorial, posted above, is the stated position of Dawn, then it is simply pulling wool over the eyes of the people.

You keep claiming that you are an editor and not a reporter. What does this mean? Are you saying that editors simply write without thinking and are not interested in facts provided by the reporters. Even as an editor, you should have an inkling of common sense unless the qualfications of editors for Dawn is based on the army mentality in Pakistan: do what is told and do not think for yourself.

Ciao

re: Temporal # 6

Unlike you, I am not waiting for Allah to solve our problems. There is a difference in our perceptions, because sitting in Toronto, you are incapable of smelling the dung, which surrounds us in Pakistan. I have to walk in this defecation called a society and I am not particularly interested in intellectualism and phraseologies to explain this insanity. Karachi has changed and what was the reality while you were strolling Karachi is no longer existant.

An person does not have to necessarily live in the neighborhood to blast that neighborhood; they can travel and do the deed, which kills people. Afghans need not live in the inner city, because they can drive to the inner city and bomb. According to your comments, terrorism is and should be a stagant occupation and a terrorist should only operate in his own neighborhood and only bomb his neighbors.

I have a rage seething inside of me, and I am blaming because it is time we blamed ourselves for this act of sheer stupidity. Yes; I am responsible for the blame and I am responsible for placing the blame, but I am not shirking anymore from my responsibility. Temporal, when you start living in hell, then by all accounts ask people not to blame the devil within themselves, but if you do not live in hell, then you are incapable of judging those who burn in hell and you cannot inform them, according to your morality, what part of hell is populated with, which group of sinners.

You can point out all the errors you wish, my friend (because that is your occupational nature). You do not wish to place the blame, because you are as much a part of the problem as I am. You wish to go on with your sedated life of clever words and stimulating criticisms, but use your own stance of self feigned aloofness to side step any stigma of blame. Temporal, we have to start blaming; not for the sake of aportioning blame, but to blame to high light the problems. The only way we in Pakistan will solve our problems is we stop to live in denial and place the blame in order to solve the problem. For too long, we have not blamed and placed the blame, where it was due and thus, we have not solved anything.

As to Omar R. Quraishi, whether he is an editor and not a reporter is a spurious argument like parsing the difference between a freedom fighter and terrorist. It is not about what he is nor is not, it is about responsibility and if Omar is not a reporter but an editor, does that lessen his obligations to the cause of his profession, which is about stating the facts?

Ciao

Feroz is right and there seems to be an afghan related influence on the whole saga. It does not matter where the blast occurred, New Chali or Sohrab Goth don`t make a difference. The terrorists identify areas where they have easy egresses.

I tend to agree with Feroz that the central as well as the provincial govts. should have been alert to some retaliation and especially after the attack on Chinese in Gwadar. The Pakistani security agencies do know the pattern. There is never just one bomb blast; it is always several in sequences. Also remember that Pakistan forces in the tribal belt killed some foreigners and are insisting for removal of foreigners from wana. The terrorist first attacked foreigners in Gwadar and now in Karachi attacked a community that terrorists identify as enemy.

If the securities agencies are alert & keep their eyes open, they have the ability to pre-empt some of the terrorists act. Let’s not be naïve and assume that the security agencies including the local police did not know the people, who have connections to Wana confrontation and are in Karachi.

When terrorists hit in Karachi, they are not hitting at MQM etc. but the message is for the Army. Karachi is much more important to Pakistan army then any other part of Pakistan.

There may be more blast coming.

Omar:

I must congratulate you for making it to the Chowk. Your desperation was rather obvious!

If the words posted above do not reflect the truth then you should have refrained from sending it to the Chowk. Asking them to withhold the byline is akin of Pentagon asking CBS to `dealy` airing of the photographs.

And this aberrant request from a journalist who not too long ago was lamenting about another english daily for projecting Chowk and Chowk`s inability to edit and/or to choose the `right material to be printed, i.e yours!!!!!!

mittarji:

it should leave a hole in one`s heart.

******

and reading cheesoo`s ilog, and the realities of what is happening, i am sick and tired, and very pissed off about this pontification and apportioning blame that t. is referring to. blaming the government. . .what is the government, central or local going to do. . .put the real faces to what is going on. . .the people with the real faces and the governments have no real interest in keeping our communities violence-free. if they did, this would NOT be happening as often as it does, or at all.

it is now considered very naive to expect the mainstream press to tell the truth, is it not?

feroz:

… you are also playing the blame game my friend…

…would like to point out two errors:

first: the sind madressah (enter to learn; fo foth to serve) is not in an afghan dominated area as you imply but it is in the older/inner city..

second: you write Omar R. Quraishi, instead of typing and printing articles condemning the acts of terrorism in Pakistan, why not write editorials holding the people responsible by name and profession. You are a reporter, you know who these people are and if you believe in what you write, then write what you believe is the truth!

...omar is not a reporter…he has acknowledged it himself recently…also…I do not believe he knows the identity of the bomber or he would have come forward and said so…

rgds

t

ferozk -- arguing with you on this editorial (not article -- there is a difference) is not something i want to do on this board -- actually i had requested that the byline not go because this is the newspaper`s voice -- for the record feroz, i am not a reporter but an assistant editor , an editorial writer

---

again a big difference between the two jobs and what they entail -- one thing i would personally disagree with you (something that the editorial does reflect) is that the government has to take the steps to deal with these people -- u cannot expect people to do this -- as for your comments on writing the `truth`, clearly your perception of it is different from dawn`s stated position

the roots of the blast are of afghan origin -- where did u get that from ??

temporal:
It`s not impersonal any more. It leaves a hole in my heart reading anNy`s diary and read what`s going through the mind of that sweet, little, alwayscheerful girl who could always be counted upon to put a smile on your face.

re: Omar R. Quraishi

Lets admit the truth. Blaming the government and expecting them to anything about this latest terrorist bombing in Karachi is as futile and as hopeless a wish as anything, which can be hoped from the government of Pakistan. The editorial will make the readers of Dawn feel good and secure in their tolerant morality, but will not do a whet for the issues at hand. The government of Pakistan is not interested in solving the problems, which afflict Karachi, because it does not care a hoot about the people of Karachi. If the government of Pakistan and Sindh, was really serious about ending this problem, it could have solved the problem two decades ago.

This is all about localized politics in Karachi and their ripple ramifications nationally. The roots of the bomb blast maybe sectarian, but are of an Afghan origins. After the military action in South Waziristan, the response should have been expected. The response was given in the shape of the bomb blast, which killed the Chinese in Gwadar and a few days later, it was repeated in Karachi. It does not require a Sherlock Holmes to realize that most of the violence in Karachi is occuring in neighborhoods populated by Afghans and amongst the Pathans in Karachi. There is is a clearly defined Afghan sectarian and civil war, proxy by nature, which is being fought by the Afghans in Karachi. This Afghan civil war is the continuation of the Afghan blood fueds, which migrated to Pakistan in the wake of the massive Afghan exodus to Pakistan in the early 1980s and now, have assumed commerical interests.

The governments of Pakistan and Sindh have been criminally slow in accepting the truth that Karachi is demographically and commercially influenced by the Afghans and this is causing a very real sense of imbitterness amongst the Karachites, especially those who migrated to Karachi from India in 1947 and swear a political alligience to MQM. Islamabad`s only concern is the factual hatred for denying PPP a political foot hold in Sindh, and towards this Faustian bargain, the government will continue to prop the MQM provincial government, but to keep its political leverage, will make sure that the MQM government in Sindhi is weak and still has problems. This is a simple and a traditional politics of divide and conquer, which has been the forte of Islamabad for dealing with political issues in Sindhi since the time of Zia-ul-Haq.

As to the issues of law and order, it would be the height of stupidity to expect the Karachi police to enfore the law and order and bring the culprits to accountability. The Karachi police is a reason for the violence in Karachi and should never, under any circumtances, be considered as a solution. The police force of Pakistan has been professionally inept in dealing with the rising crime spree, because they are the criminals who patronize the criminals and offer them protection. The police in Karachi and else where in Pakistan, stands complict in the crimes. This is an endemic problem and it will not be sorted by issuing new police ordinances or making reforms. The people who work in the police forces are the criminals and it makes no sense for the criminals to punish the criminals. It is a given fact, that nothing in the way of a crime will happen in any city of Pakistan unless the police consents to the activity, since they get a slice of the crime and its profit as a incentive for allowing it in the first place.

As to hoping the government for dealing with the problem, the best bet would be that national and provincial governments will announce their determined resolve to solve the problem and then, it will be business as usual when the political horse trading will take precedence over issues of law and order. Musharraf or Jamali or any police officer is not going to make a difference, for a couple of reasons. One reason being that these people are good at making speeces on a marco level, but are useless in implementing their policy on a micro level. The real police work in Pakistani cities is done on the neighborhood level and the person responsible for this is the SHO (Station House Officer).

Pakistani police auctions its neigborhoods and each neighborhood police station has a monetary price on it. A SHO comes to authority not because he has graduated from police academy or he is qualified, but because he buys the police station for neighborhood and during his tenure, which is a couple of years, he expects to make good on his investment. A police SHO makes an alliance with the local business groups of his neighborhood and the local criminal origanizations not to interfer in their affairs and in return, he is given a monthy stipend, which is paid by the businesses. This stipend is many times over the offical salary the SHO is paid and thus, is in his interest to ensure a smooth operation of business interests in Pakistan, which is generally smuggling and thus, he is not interested in ending the crime in Pakistan as it is the crime which pays for his life style choices.

Secondly, most of the Pakistani police officers are useless, as they are desk bound and hardly venture out into the field and away from the cooling environs of their spilt air conditioners. Most of their time is spend writing flowerly reports and in believing in such reports written by others and have no clue to what is actually happening in the streets of Pakistani cities. They have no idea that most police stations in Pakistan are dens of prositution and the biggest pimps in Pakistan are the police themselves. They have no idea that most of the are people in jail, because the SHO has been bribed to register a false case against some one and this is mostly the result of property disputes. They do not realize that the patwari (the person who is responsible for land claims and issues land titles) and the SHO are in cohoots and between them, they register cases to grab choice property and sell it to make a profit.

The police officers pay surprise visits and the SHO politely gives them a reason and they suspend some people for a lack of duty, who are simply reinstated the minute they climb back into their SUVs and head back to the office. These surprise visits are a joke and if anyone is interested in seeing the truth, they should visit the ``thana`` at the time of fujr prayers. The real work in a police thana happens between 1 am and around 5 am, when the morning shift reports for work. If the SHO is corrupt, the signs will be visible such as alcohol bottles lying on the tables, cops out of uniforms coming out of jail cells, which are used to bed prositutes for the night, people coming and giving the cops their share of money from robberies committed in the city. The fact of the matter is the local SHO is the criminal ``don`` for his area, which he has bought and as long as he is in authority, nothing will happen vis-a-vis law and order being enforced.

Incidently, it may be amusing to note that a SHO is not accountable to his superior but to the wife of his superior officer. The wives of the police officers in Pakistan administer the operations of the police force and decide, who will be posted and to where. It is also funny to realize that the entire silver collection of the Pakistani police has been divided between the many police officers, because they wives wanted to grab the choice silver ornaments. The reason for the corruption in Pakistani police, amongst its officer cadres, is because of the ``begum mentality``, and it the begums of Pakistan, which have done more to ruin the institutionalism in Pakistan than anyone else.

The intent of the article is wrong, because nothing will gained from understanding the mind of the terrorists, because you have to understand the mind of the government officals who plan and condone this type of behavior. You have to understand the politics of inaction to comprehend, why the people blow people up. You have to understand the reasons behind the governments in Islamabad and the provinces, because all these actions happen because they are allowed to happen. These people, who kill the innocent work for the governments to give them a reason to be in power and to side track the real issues to claims of bravado. Without these sorts of activity, the governments in Pakistan shall be held resonsible for their lack of policies in dealing with the real problems of the population and would be proven highly inept in their work. These killings are a justification for the people in Pakistan to stay in office and claim that they are trying to solve the problems, ``but there are elements who are working against the interests of the country``.

It is in the interests of the governments in Pakistan to make certain that people of Pakistan never unite, because that would be the end of the special previleges, which the ruling classes enjoy in Pakistan. If the people of Pakistan ever unite and demand an accountibility from those who have in the past governed them and govern them in the present, we will have democracy and freedom in this nation faster than crap goes through a goose. Therefore, the policies of divide and rule are practiced in Pakistan, because the people who follow these practices are the people, who think that they are the logical successors to the British Raj and rule Pakistan as a personal colony of self-interests.

The people who rule and lord over Pakistan have done such a brilliant job of lying that people of Pakistan do not realize that the ``anti-national elements`` are the ones, who hold political office in Pakistan. All one has to do to understand the politics of Pakistan is to ask a simple question: who benfits from all the mess in Pakistan? Secondly, having answered that question, follow the advice in the words of Deep Throat of Watergate fame, which is follow the money and once you know, where the money trails ends, you will know who is responsible.

Omar R. Quraishi, instead of typing and printing articles condemning the acts of terrorism in Pakistan, why not write editorials holding the people responsible by name and profession. You are a reporter, you know who these people are and if you believe in what you write, then write what you believe is the truth!

Ciao

READ THIS ...

...guess time is ripe for pontification, prevarication and apportionement of blame...


...instead of the nero`s flute let`s turn on the loud speaker atop the minarets and recite the azaan... while intolerance does us in ... if there is an Allah somewhere up there He would understand....