KARACHI, Jan 9: Two rival gangs in Lyari buried the hatchet by pledging not to attack each other in the area of their influence after behind-the-scenes negotiations conducted with them by political leaders in an effort to restore peace to the locality proved successful.

Residents of Ali Mohammad Mohalla – a strong base of Ghaffar Baloch alias Ghaffar Zikri which has been under the control of a rival group, Mulla Latif and Abdul Jabbar, notoriously known as Jingoo – heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday night when they saw members of the Ghaffar Zikri group enter their locality.

Members of both the groups embraced each other in the traditional Baloch manner, pledging that they would not fight each other.

Both members of Ghaffar Baloch, who is said to be associated with the Arshad Pappu group, and the rival members of Rehman Dakait group vowed to work for the restoration of peace in the area. The event was marked by the Baloch-style drum-beating, known as Lewa.

For years the local town administration could not chalk out a formula to control the gang warfare and restore peace to the area. Despite several operations by the law-enforcement agencies the town could not be rid of gang warfare.

After induction of the PPP-led coalition, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and many other leaders in a series of meetings with elected representatives of Lyari and the police authorities attempted to ensure peace in the area. However, all these efforts proved vain as the gang warfare continued to haunt the area people, who were forced to move to safer places.

Sources said the elected representatives of Lyari asked police authorities and the home minister to allow them to hold talks with the elements involved in the gang warfare. They asked the authorities concerned not to use force in the area, as hundreds of area residents had already moved to safer places.

Local leaders made efforts to initiate talks behind the scenes and demanded pardon for the elements involved in Lyari gang warfare. MNA Nabil Gabol and MPA Rafiq Engineer continued their efforts to bring both the groups the negotiating table and tried to convince them that surrender before the authorities would be a better option for them.

It may be recalled that after taking the oath as Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had promised that the Lyari gang warfare would be controlled within 15 days. He posted Imran Shaukat as the town police officer of Lyari, claiming that he was the best choice and an honest police officer capable of controlling the adverse law and order situation in the area.

Area people as well as the elected representatives pointed out that SP Imran Shaukat even brought SHOs of his choice in Chakiwara, Kalakot, Kalri and Baghdadi. However, following his deputation after a month, the crime rate rose again and the gang warfare returned to the area.

Police authorities claimed that the elected representatives had no interest in maintaining law and order in the area though the elected representatives approached some leaders in Balochistan and continued their efforts to bring the situation under control.

More than 200 people have been killed, thousands injured and over 100 houses have been set on fire in the gang warfare so far, a police official claimed.

According to the authorities, the goal of both sides in the gang warfare is to take control of the area to run their illegal activities unhindered.

It is often noticed that Baloch localities keep echoing with gunshots day and night, while there is no turmoil in the non-Baloch localities. A senior citizen living in the area questioned why the Baloch-dominated areas had become the target of the gang warfare while other localities, which were inhibited by Pushtoons, Sindhis, Gujratis, Punjabis and Kutchi Memons, remained peaceful over the years.