seemingly calm Sunday, when the Rangers’ operation in the
city’s oldest quarter was on and Zulfiqar Mirza was making headlines
with his diatribe, many in Lyari felt that their voices were not being
heard by the politicians and the media.
“Our locality and
its inhabitants are being singled out as being part of a gang war that
is sabotaging peace in the city,” said Mohammad. A driver by profession,
Mohammad, 33, belongs to the Katchi community and is a resident of Old
Kumhar wara. “Despite the hype we see about Lyari’s gangs and goons, I
was never hurt or threatened by any Baloch in Lyari. For me, the town is
my second home.”
Visibly frustrated at the way things were going
on in the city, he said, “If the Rangers operation is necessary it has
to be across the board. Why is it that it’s only Lyari that is being
targeted and termed as a ‘gangsters’ town?”
Living in abject
poverty with little means to sustain their day to day existence, the
locals feel that broken promises of their elected representatives and
the media are responsible for the crisis that this area faces.
“I’m
a Baloch from Lyari and I’m not a gangster. Please stop Lyari’s media
trail,” said Raza (not his real name), a 23 years old student who runs a
net café in the area.
Talking about the recent turn of events
that have once again shoved Lyari into the limelight for all the wrong
reasons, he says, “The media is very biased and polarised. Lyari was
never a ‘No Go’ area for anyone. We have all kinds of ethnic groups
living in the same neighborhood; we share each other’s sorrows and
happiness together. However, the media is hell bent on creating a
hostile picture and there is no one willing to share our stories.”
Of the ethnic violence and gang war in the area, he says its “political in nature with extortionists calling the shots.”
“But
it’s not only the killings that are worrying us. After the brutal
killing of five men from Lyari, many employers have asked their Baloch
workforce not to come to work as security cannot be guaranteed. As it
is, poverty and lack of employment opportunities has been frustrating
the residents of Lyari for years. Now, this will allow more youngsters
to go for the guns and drugs.”
With its narrow interlinked lanes
that are no less a maze, a trip to the area is an eye opener. With many
communities living side by side, the place once known for its late night
rendezvous and football crazy locals is now a shadow of its former
self.
Shahid Husain, a senior Journalist and former activist,
termed Lyari the most vibrant place in Karachi with its unique
sub-culture. “I have never seen such a lively place. I use to go to
Lyari everyday when I was a student. I never felt threatened because the
people there were so friendly and loving.”
But that was over three
decades ago and then the downfall of this peaceful locality began.
“Considered a stronghold of the Pakistan People’s Party, Lyari was
transformed when heroine and Kalashnikov were introduced during the
Afghan War. That was a dictator’s gift.”
A highly populated area, with the 1998 census stating Lyari’s
population to be over 600000; Lyari is no more than a slum. Come
elections and the politicians throng the area for getting the maximum
political mileage and disappear once in the assembly. Years of neglect
and official apathy hasn’t gone unnoticed by the locals and nor has the
‘gifts’ of dictators.
“Despite being the oldest slum in South
Asia, Lyari was always known for its peace and calm and the mutual
respect that people had for various communities. It was a peaceful
coexistence,” said Asghar Baloch, a government school teacher.
Sharing
a similar sentiment as Raza and others, he too blamed the media for
being biased, with “the ‘gang war’ being created by the media”.
“Petty drug peddlers in Lyari are portrayed as larger than life characters by the media,” he said.
“The
then government of Arbab Ghulam Rahim and its ally the MQM deliberately
allowed the killing of the people of Lyari by two rival gangs,” he
alleged.
“The Musharraf regime allowed for the systematic
nurturing of violence. The drug peddlers and goons, who were criminals
and should have been dealt accordingly, were given a freehand and now
they rule the roost. They (government) ignored the killings in Lyari
when one Baloch was killing another Baloch for drug money. Many of the
Baloch men who were killed were not gangsters or from the drug mafia.
But because Lyari was never their vote bank, they looked away.”
“No one did anything for this area and the communities living
here. The very youngsters who lost their family members in gang war back
then are now holding guns and trying to avenge for their loss. Today
Lyari is once again being used for political gains while the future of
its people looks bleak,” he added.
Fearing for their lives and
afraid of being singled out, many Baloch residents have stopped
venturing to other parts of the town. A vocal matriarch, Hamida Baloch
says that her children have barred her from travelling to other areas.
“I wear Balochi dress. My children say that I could be kidnapped and
killed,” she said. She claimed that some of her acquaintances were
humiliated and had their heads and eyebrows shaved by men from the
Urdu-speaking community.
Recalling old times, she said that she
was born and bred in Karachi and her family members playing an active
part in the development of the Karachi port. “Our forefathers moved to
Karachi back in 1880’s from Balochistan. Their sweat and blood is there
in the foundation of the Karachi Port Trust. My grandchildren are the
fifth generation who were born here in Karachi. We are the children of
this soil and are more loyal and patriotic to Karachi than anyone else
and today we are being called criminals, it really hurts!” she
complained.
On the Rangers’ operation in Karachi, she said that
her family and those in neighbourhood did not join in the protests as
“we want an operation against anyone who is involved in violence in the
city.”
