IT was a tumultuous week for Karachiites. Anti-government feelings had been simmering for a long time. On Jan 25, 1969, a 24-hour curfew was imposed on Frere Road near Arambagh and further down towards Saddar after the area turned into a battlefield because of the clashes between police and angry mobs. A number of vehicles and broken signposts were set on fire. The biggest cloud of smoke billowed from a kerosene shop that got burnt at about 4pm. Media reports suggested that it all began at 9.45am when three omnibuses were set alight at the Arambagh bus stop. Then a mob attacked Masjid-i-Khizra service station, a petrol pump on Frere Road, but dispersed after assaulting some workers at the station. They did not touch the petrol pump because it belonged to the masjid.

Members of the press, too, received injuries while covering the violent scenes. The commissioner of Karachi, Syed Darbar Ali Shah, “deeply regretted” the incident on behalf of the administration, highlighting that he was ordering an inquiry into the “unfortunate” situation.

Addressing a press conference, he apologised for the fact that some journalists and press photographers got injured. “Nothing was intentional,” he remarked. He said it was due to an error of judgement that the pressmen were attacked. He advised the media to “kindly see that they are a little out of the way” when a clash was unfolding. Speaking about the Arambagh mosque incident, in which policemen followed some students into the masjid, the commissioner said he was upset about it, but only an inquiry could ascertain the facts.

Mind you, the city was already tense, even before violence broke out in Saddar, for not an entirely different reason. A few days back, in the eastern part of the country, Dacca to be precise, police had opened fire on university students. So, on Jan 23, the East Pakistan Students in Karachi took out a procession protesting against the firing on Dacca University students. Called by the University of Karachi’s East Pakistan Students Association, the procession was joined by Purbo Pakistan Chhatro Samiti, Purbo Pakistan Chhatro Chhatri Shangho, the National Students Federation (Kazmi group), the Islami Jamiat-i-Talba, the Baloch Students Federation and the Pakhtun Students Federation. They started to walk in protest from the Jamia Masjid Jacob Lines, marching through M.A. Jinnah Road, Victoria Road, Elphisntone Street and Empress Market before reaching the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam. Carrying banners in Bengali, Urdu and English, the students offered the ghaibana namaz-i-janaza near Paradise Theatre for the victims of police action.

On Jan 24, the Karachi University East Pakistan Students Association (KUEPSA) and the East Pakistan Students Association in separate statements through press releases condemned what had happened in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

The KUEPSA extended its heartfelt sympathies to the families of the ‘shaheeds’. It also condemned the police action against the demonstrating students in Karachi the previous evening, and demanded lifting of the curfew.

What was the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) doing all this while? Well, it was involved in something quite different, but commendable. On Jan 23, the corporation handed over a cheque for Rs1,000 to poet Behzad Lakhnavi to help him pay for his medical treatment.

The poet had been seriously ill for some time and was awaiting a major operation. He had earlier appealed to the commissioner of Karachi to provide him with the means to earn a living, and the KMC had offered him a post of a primary schoolteacher or an assistant librarian. He had refused both.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019