THE murder on Friday of two men associated with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum remains a murky affair. Although charges have been filed, reporters who cover the affairs of the fishermen community say that the exact circumstances of the crime and the identity of the murderers remain unclear. Complicating matters is the death earlier the same day of another fisherman, one who reportedly belonged to a rival group. Whether the PFF men were killed in retaliation remains unclear; the rivalry was reportedly an ongoing one and also involved political and social influence in the area. However, one major undercurrent was almost certainly a dispute over the future of our coastal mangroves. The PFF men had been campaigning for the conservation of mangrove forests, and in the process had taken positions against those seeking to occupy and clear the land for commercial purposes. If their murders were in fact committed in retaliation for this, it constituted a huge blow to an important environmental cause. Pakistan’s mangrove forests are breeding grounds for fish and shrimp that sustain coastal communities and also serve as bulwarks against heavy rains and flooding.

But the incident also points to the larger problem of land grabbing in Karachi. In this metropolis, that is bursting at the seams, land ownership has come to be equated with money and power. The issue has become a deeply violent and politicised one, with land disputes now a routine cause of targeted killings. Sadly, a system of corruption has developed to support this; without the connivance of elements of the police and other departments of the bureaucracy, these actions would almost certainly not be taking place. Often associated with armed gangs in some of the city’s most violent areas, land grabbing may now have claimed the lives of environmental activists.