‘Peace talks’ to continue

KARACHI: A renewed wave of violence in old city areas intensified on Thursday when half a dozen persons, including a woman and a boy, were wounded in gun and cracker attacks only a few hours after two groups had agreed to call a truce, police said.

The exchange of fire that the police said was triggered by early morning rumours about kidnapping and killing provoked residents to take to the streets. They staged hours-long protest on Mauripur Road, where two trailers were set on fire.

Subsequently, the law-enforcement agencies launched an operation in Lyari during which a deputy superintendent of police, Shakeel Ahmed, sustained injuries on his face. The police, however, said they managed to demolish bunkers built by criminals in the area.

“Police, the Rangers and the district administration had earlier held talks with legislators from Lyari that continued till late Wednesday night,” said DIG south Dr Ameer Sheikh.

As a result of the talks, a meeting of Kutchhis and Baloch representatives was arranged with the result that settlement was reached. In a subsequent move, announcements for ‘truce’ were made from mosques at 3am, the officer said.

However, he added, it proved short-lived as some miscreants at around 5am spread rumours that ‘eight Kutchhis’ had been kidnapped. While it transpired shortly afterwards that these rumours were baseless, another rumour was later spread that a Kutchhi community member had been ‘kidnapped and killed’.

The rumours triggered an exchange of fire from the two sides leaving some passers-by wounded.

“We received four injured persons including a woman and a boy who had been brought from the Kalri and Chakiwara areas of Lyari,” said medico-legal officer at the Civil Hospital Karachi Dr Karrar Abbasi. He said their condition was out of danger. The wounded were identified as Sakina Razzak, 28, Nero Khan, 14, Farhad Fazal, 25, and Ghulam Hussain Siddiqi, 61.

Following the firing incidents, a number of people took to the streets and staged a protest demonstration on Mauripur Road that turned violent when two trailers were set on fire, according to the police and fire brigade official.

Contingents of police and the Rangers rushed to the spot and managed to disperse the mob after five hours of clashes with the protesters, according to an official at the Kalri police station.

The police authorities took notice of the violence and suspended the official in charge of Kalri police station, Mohammad Wazir, said the DIG south.

“We have decided to invoke the anti-terrorism act against the persons who torched the trailers and resorted to violence in a bid to ban the protest on the artery forever,” said Dr Sheikh.

The police and the Rangers then entered Hingorabad, particularly its streets 9-10, and other localities where an intermittent exchange of fire between the two groups had been going on for the past three days. They destroyed a number of the bunkers, the senior officer said.

The violence was followed by a ‘truce’ between the Kutchhi Rabita Committee and banned Peoples Amn Committee.

‘Multi-pronged strategy’

A purported multi-pronged strategy containing negotiations and use of force has been chalked out to restore a ‘lasting peace’ to the old city areas.

In reply to a question about the outcome of the talks with three legislators of Lyari namely Senator Yusuf Baloch, MPAs Javed Nagori and Sania Naz and PPP Karachi division president Abdul Qadir Patel on Wednesday night, the senior police officer said that it was decided that ‘a complaint cell’ would be set up at Peoples Football Stadium to entertain complaints of businessmen and others about extortion and kidnappings against ‘Lyari elements’.

The Baloch representatives in the meeting argued that complaints of extortion and kidnapping for ransom were ‘exaggerated and manipulated’.

It was also agreed that as a next step, the Baloch representatives would hold talks with the business community to address their concerns about extortion.

“We have also decided to engage the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in talks as we consider them a third stakeholder apart from the Baloch and the Kutchhi communities,” the DIG said.

He said a contact had been made with the MQM leaders and a meeting with them was expected on Friday (today).

He said they had decided to hold talks with the MQM as they had complaints that their activists could not move in the Baloch-dominated areas while the Baloch said their community members were unable to travel in the MQM-dominated areas.

Dr Sheikh said that law-enforcement officials would meet the MQM leaders and subsequently, there was a plan to arrange a meeting between the MQM and the Baloch representatives.

Meanwhile, as guns fell silent late Thursday night, the body of a young man was found in Chakiwara.

The police said that the body bearing three gunshot wounds and torture marks was spotted near Shaheen School in Bihar Colony. The corpse was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination, the police said, adding that the victim’s identity could not be ascertained immediately.

Political angle

“The violence in Lyari is complex and tricky problem,” noted the DIG South. He said there were ‘some political factors’ fuelling the violence.

The Kutchhis said that they were being ignored as for the first time, not a single Kutchhi was elected to the legislature and they felt ‘insecure’. He said the deputy commissioner of district south and the SSP City were holding talks with the Kutchhi community representatives to restore a lasting peace to the area.

In addition to the peace talks, it was decided that a crackdown against ‘30 to 40 criminals’ would continue in Lyari in which five APCs, two borrowed from the west zone of police, were being used to enter the contested localities. He said the Baloch representatives had given their support for this targeted action against the ‘rogue elements’.

“The police have entered the congested localities of Lyari first time after the infamous Cheel Chowk operation,” believed Dr Sheikh.