Akhtar Balouch, also known as the Kiranchi Wala, ventures out to bring back to Dawn.com’s readers the long forgotten heritage of Karachi. Stay tuned to this space for his weekly fascinating findings.

Eagles are not herbivores and, thus, can never feed on grass. So, how does a square named after a grass seller come to be called Cheel Chowk (Eagle Square)? This is the story of the famous Cheel Chowk of Lyari, an oft-referred location that has turned into the area’s landmark symbol.

Cheel Chowk is the point whence the actual Lyari begins. During the 2012 Lyari Operation by law enforcement agencies, in which about 3,000 armed police personnel in bulletproof vests participated, and resources, including armoured personnel carriers, were used, the police could not make it to the other side of this square.

Ayoub Qureshi, the Secretary General of the Sindh chapter of the National Party, and a former resident of Lyari recalls, “The Lyari that is known for extortion, gang war, kidnapping-for-ransom and other crimes today, was once known for equality, democratic attitudes and struggle against tyranny.”

In this divided part of the city Karachi, there was a time when all the residents, regardless of what race, color or religion they belonged to, were in agreement with one another on ideological grounds.

In the not-so-distant past, when local bodies’ polls were being held, all the union council nazims of Lyari, all belonging to the Baloch community, went against the wishes of the Baloch Member of the National Assembly, Nabeel Gabol, and elected Malik Fayaz of the Mianwali community as Town nazim and Malik Muhammad Khan as Naib nazim. Before him, Abul Khaliq Jumma was the town nazim of Lyari. He was from the Lasi community. Later, Juma was also elected Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) from the same area.

Similarly, Waaja Daad Karim (waaja is a Balochi word, used in respect for an elder or a senior, a rough translation of sahib or janaab), who was elected MNA from Lyari in 1988, was from the Ismaeli (Agha Khani) community. He was perhaps the only member of that community in the whole country to have been elected MNA.

These were political shocks for many. However, they were the simple dynamics of the pro-people, democratic and ideological Lyari of those days. It was a time when every resident of Lyari had only one identity, and that identity was being a resident of Lyari and not their religion, race, caste or community.

Much water can be poured on what Lyari was and what it has now become, but here we are to speak of the famous Cheel Chowk. In the ‘80s, this square was known as the Ibrahim Chowk. There are no government documents for how it got that name. Locals say a man called Ibrahim used to sell grass here (and no, not the one that gets you high!).

All the donkey-cart owners and livestock owners of Lyari were his regular customers. Ibrahim was so known in the area, that the place came to be known after him. It might be of great interest to know for a lot of people that not many squares in the world are known after grass-selling poor men.

More interestingly, however, progressive, social worker, Taj Mari has a different story to tell about Cheel Chowk. He starts with recalling how Lyari always proved to be home to some of the most active progressive and liberal minds in the country, be it the struggle against General Ayoub Khan’s dictatorship or the participation in the movement against General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law. “At every step of this country’s democratic journey,” Mari goes on to say,

Lyari has made sacrifices without keeping a count.

During the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1983 against the Zia regime, usually protest demonstrations were held at the Aath Chowk in Chakeewada. Upon being tipped that a demonstration was to be held, police would surround Aath Chowk before anything else. It was not possible for the protestors to cross the Aath Chowk and reach Lee Market or Napier Road, thereby affecting other areas of the metropolis. Ergo, comrades always eyed this square.

The reason could be the Usmanabad area which is adjacent to the square, and the nearby area in Ranchore Line. Both are commercial centres where locals were least interested in the fate of the Zia regime. Their concerns were for their businesses. The central roundabout in Ranchore Line was once the location of a synagogue, the Jewish place of worship. It was called the Yahoodi Masjid. A tall commercial centre has replaced it, a concrete, commercial taunt for the world’s Jewish community.

Comrades of the MRD were of the thought that through protest demonstrations at the Cheel Chowk, a large commercial area of central Karachi could be affected and commercial activities suspended. The comrades were expecting a domino effect, that this tactic of theirs will affect other commercial areas of the city as well.

The analysis of that tactic does partially answer the question as to why would MRD activists from various parts of Karachi, and from other cities, too, come to this place for protests. One reason completes the answer: the fact that Lyari, as a single community unit, loathed the Zia regime. In the event of actions taken by the police against the raging protests, when comrades would scatter to call it a day and save strength for the next, many would come to Lyari confidently, knowing that people, especially women, of this loving community would always welcome them. The people of Lyari received the MRD activists with respect so that the next day these comrades can again rise and shake the very foundations of tyranny in their homeland.

From the reminiscences of the MRD, let us now return to our main question: how did Ibrahim Chowk become Cheel Chowk?

Ilahi Bux Balouch, a social activist and a resident of Lyari, tells us that 15 to 20 years ago the municipal administration of Karachi was redecorating and reconstructing various squares in Karachi. Ibrahim Chowk was also taken into their kind consideration. A minaret was built and a concrete, inartistic Falcon, inspired by Allama Iqbal’s shaheen (his metaphorical symbol of an ideal Muslim, hence a Pakistani) was placed atop.

Since the Baloch locals were not acquainted with Iqbal’s philosophic Falcon, they saw the bird and thought it was an eagle. Gradually, the structure became the source of the name of the square and it got christened as the Cheel Chowk.

Last year, during the week-long Lyari Operation, the falcons of the Sindh Police in the leadership of the allegedly infamous officer Aslam Choudhary, could not fly past the Eagle Square.

It seems that many in Lyari still admire the tactic used by the MRD activists in the ‘80s. It is probably the same tactic that is applied by the residents around Cheel Chowk. However, it is an altogether different matter that the former application of the tactic was for the sake of democracy and the current is hugely debatable.

-Translated by Ayaz Laghari

Read this blog in Urdu here.