ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Where bullet ridden bodies regularly turn up in jute sacks

Two young businesswomen lunching at a fashionable cafe in upmarket Zamzama boulevard in Karachi, were oblivious of the violence that claimed five lives elsewhere in the city on Friday.

More than 200 people have been killed by rival factions of a militant ethnic group since June 1. The militants are fighting for territorial control of the entire Karachi neighbourhood.

In the industrial area of Korangi and the vast slum of Orangi -- bullet- riddled bodies regularly turn up in jute sacks. So grim is the situation that navigating the crossfire safely has become a daily challenge for residents.

The police identified Friday's murderers as ''unidentified gunmen.'' One thousand suspects have been taken into police custody for questioning since the beginning of the year.

The last week of June -- the bloodiest so far this year, caused business losses worth $ 2.2 billion to the financial and commercial capital of Pakistan.

It is ''an amount almost equal to the revenue shortfall of the central board of revenue during the last fiscal year,'' estimates Umer Sailya, chairman of the All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industries.

Sailya estimates that a one-day closure of Karachi's markets results in some Rs 3.4 billion worth of turnover losses. Politically-motivated armed robberies have already cost the business community a loss of Rs 1.73 billion in May and June.

''The deteriorating law and order in the city has stifled economic growth,'' says M Hanif Janoo, president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The only foreign investment in the last five years was a chemical plant set up in 1997 by the Britain-based Transnational Company ICI. Meanwhile, frequent strikes and gun battles have resulted in the closure of businesses and factories.

However, this has not stopped glamourous, upmarket outlets in the city. Almost oblivious to the violence, expensive eateries, designer fashion stores and swanky furniture shops have mushroomed in posh locations. Zamzama boulevard, which connects the upmarket Clifton area -- where former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has one of her homes -- to the defence housing society, an equally expensive neighbourhood, is the city's newest hangout for the rich.

The ethnic violence that broke out in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, following the sudden death of military dictator General Zia-ul Haq in August 1988, had largely taken place elsewhere in the city.

The battles were triggered by demands for more rights by the Mohajir Quami Movement, representing Indian immigrants to Pakistan. The organisation wants Mohajirs or refugees to be recognised as a fifth ethnic group.

Successive governments have refused this demand, resulting in consequent violence. The bloodiest year was 1995, when more than 2,000 people were killed -- roughly twice the number from the previous year.

Violence was controlled to a large extent in 1996 through a ruthless crackdown by the then Bhutto government. However, the Pakistan's People Party was virulently criticised for its heavy-handed tactics and human rights abuse.

In spite of its efforts, the army was unable to crush the movement. Altaf Hussain, the Mohajir leader remains in self-imposed exile in Britain, and controls his faction from there.

Gunmen roaming the troubled eastern and central areas of Karachi are a grim reminder of the prevailing tension. Police and paramilitary forces patrol only in armour-plated vehicles and hunker down behind cement barricades surrounded by sandbags.

Sometimes violence spills into posh areas like Defence Colony, where armed men killed Shahid Hamid, director of the Karachi Electricity Company, outside his home last year. Hamid had been trying to weed out corruption in the public utility.

While rich Karachiites live under tight security and travel frequently to the Gulf and the West, the poor have nowhere to go. ''People have continued to survive because there is nothing else they can do,'' comments town planner Arif Hasan, who has worked long in Orangi and watched civic facilities crumble.

Hasan says the breakdown of law and order notwithstanding, people need to earn a living. ''They need sewerage systems, electricity, transport, water and all the other facilities that have become a necessity for people,'' he adds.

Moreover, those with money own cars and palatial homes, install noisy, diesel-powered electricity generators to tide over power failures. Illegal water suction pumps impose extra pressure on water pipelines.

For recreation, the rich join expensive private clubs. They shop and watch latest Hollywood and Indian films on laser discs and state-of-the-art equipment.

Karachi's poor too watch videos. But it turned out to be fatal for two young brothers. Farid and Nasir were shot last Friday at a video shop by ''unknown assailants,'' who drove off in a red car. The two died on the way to the hospital.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report