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| India-Pakistan |
| Karachi killings spark new fears |
| 2002-09-27 |
| The killing of seven workers of a Christian charity, Idara Amn-o-Insaf, yesterday has sent a fresh wave of shock through Karachites, who consider the incident the beginning of a new tool of terror in the city. "It’s a new phenomenon as far as Karachi is concerned," said social scientist Prof S Haroon Ahmed. What's different? Seems like people are getting bumped off in Karachi at an alarming rate. Certainly greasing Christians isn't anything out of the ordinary by now... Prof Ahmed said the killing of Christians had nothing to do with what was happening in Karachi already. "It’s something new in the city, which was in fact a melting pot as far as minorities went," he said. "It (the killings) has a different character. Though I don’t know the exact reason or reason behind it, these killings have instilled in people a new kind of fear." This being a family blog, I won't comment on what he's full of... The Citizens Police Liaison Committee also views the killings as a new form of violence in a city that has seen bloodshed over several years. "It’s definitely something new to Karachi," said Sharfuddin Memon, deputy chief of CPLC. He said the carnage could qualify as motivated killings but he would not comment on the possible reasons "because the police is investigating." "Y'see, this is different because, ummm... well... uhhh..." The assailants had the audacity to tie all the victims to chairs before shooting them in the head, in the 12-storey building in the heart of city. And they fled, as usually happens in the city of 14 million, without being challenged by anyone. "The gunmen first tied all the people inside the room, then taped their mouths," a police officer was quoted by the press as saying. "Yeah! That's it! That's why it's different! They tied 'em to chairs and taped their mouths. Lashkar e-Jhangvi doesn't do that. They like to hear 'em scream and plead for mercy..." According to some reports carried in an evening newspaper, a man from the office ran outside telling people of other offices that armed men were inside the NGO’s office and had tied the legs and hands of his colleagues. A doctor in the next-door office said he had seen two gunmen. "They were wearing shirts and trousers and were clean shaven," he was quoted as saying. Good description. The coppers oughta be able to pick 'em out in no time, since most of the people living in Karachi wear tank tops and kilts and sport Van Dykes... Analysts say Wednesday’s brutal killings will force Karachites to look back with horror at the civil-war like situation of the mid-nineties when 334 people were killed in politico-ethnic violence in June 1995 alone, after a record 278 political deaths the previous December. Ten a day? And they say this is different? Some analysts speculate that ‘the establishment’ could have a hand in these killings. They say that since this ghastly act has taken place when the elections are hardly two weeks away, they could be targeted to keep people away from polling stations or providing the government an excuse to postpone the elections on law and order grounds should the situation get worse. And no doubt "some analysts" are gonna try and pin it on the Indians, like they always do. And the bad guys are probably going to turn out to be the usual low-IQ Lashkar e-Jhangvi or similar thugs, killing Christians because they're Christians... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |