I LOOKED up the online Merriam-Webster Thesaurus for the entry for ‘girlfriend’. It is a noun meaning female romantic partner, with the synonyms, gal, gill, inamorata, lady, ladylove, old lady and woman.

Other words used in reference to a girlfriend are mistress, moll, beloved, darling, dear, favourite, honey, lover, significant other, sweet, sweetheart and valentine. What prompted me to confirm the meaning of girlfriend was the statement Interior Minister Rehman Malik made in Quetta last week.

According to him, only 30 per cent of the deaths of people killed in Karachi could be attributed to target killers. He credited feuds with girlfriends and wives to 70 per cent of such deaths. I did not look up the meaning of ‘wife’. I hope I still know what is, or could be, the meaning of the word.

In other words, the person whose dead body was found in the garbage lot behind Saeedabad Police Training Centre had perhaps angered his wife or girlfriend over an issue so serious that it cost him his life. Amanullah Khan, who could only tell his name before succumbing to wounds, fell victim to the wrath of a woman. The unnamed man in red shirt and grey pants who died from bullet wounds in Punjabi Gali near Spencer Eye Hospital could still be alive if his wife or girlfriend was not adamant to see him dead.

The vicious wife or girlfriend of the 30-year-old man whose body was found in Usmanabad preferred to see him sprayed with bullets instead of serving him with rodenticide in a meal. The 25-year-old young man in Jinnahabad, who could have been taught a lesson through a good slapping by goons hired by his wife or girlfriend, had to be tortured and killed by professional killers instead.

There was one Salahuddin shot dead in Noorani Park; Gul Muhammad and Abdullah killed on Manghopir Road; a city employee, warden Muhammad Younus of Garden Road and Hanif of Surjani Town. One wonders what they did to their wives or girlfriends that brought them to such grisly ends. Waqar killed at Natha Khan Goth, Abdul Majid of Bhimpura — they all made the wrong choices in their wives or girlfriends and got killed as a result.

Two teenage residents of Metroville, both class nine students, whose bodies were found in gunny bags near Timber Market, were in all probability unmarried, and therefore it must be their girlfriends who oversaw their torture, and ordered their bodies pumped with bullets and stuffed in gunny bags for dumping at a public spot.

Wives and girlfriends of Karachiites are, in the light of this ‘proof’, some of the most evil and bloodthirsty creatures known to mankind. Past masters at hatching undetectable schemes against their husbands and boyfriends, these brutes have a sanguinary influence over some completely benevolent people who we in our ignorance call ‘terrorists’. The latter position themselves at designated places at their behest, move around on motorbikes fully armed with lethal weapons, lay ambushes at roadsides and patiently wait for the hapless husbands and boyfriends to pass by so they could aim a shot at them. They employ other suitable measures to achieve their end as well, should the situation dictate it.

Certainly, Mr Malik’s bizarre theory belongs to the world of fiction. Mr Malik issues statements almost daily, as the occasion and the needs of his office demands. A sample of his statements follows: ‘Strict action would be taken [against police officers] if any incident of target killing occurs from today onwards’; ‘The government will have a strict no-tolerance policy for target killing incidents’; ‘The government has officially hired the services of satellite-imaging experts to tackle the situation in Karachi ... any house which is used as a hideout will be demolished and its occupants will be arrested’.

Since assuming office in 2008 Mr Malik has performed the role of a peace-mediator for the PPP, MQM and ANP. Thanks to his interventions, Karachiites have been saved from the threat of large-scale violence over a dozen times. No one quite knows what made him get carried away to incriminate wives and girlfriends. It is insulting to the female citizens of Karachi and ridicules those who lost their lives as the result of the state’s failure to protect them.

It is heartening to hear Sindh’s new Interior Minister, Mr Manzoor Wasan, stating that the Sindh ministry of interior will take steps to maintain peace in Karachi and as such Mr Malik would not be required to make visits to Karachi.

Mr Wasan must surely have some comprehensive plans but it would take some time to implement them. Here are a few steps Mr Wasan can take immediately: try all those suspects arrested so far in ATCs; construct permanent outposts of law-enforcement agencies at Kati Pahari and in all other no-go areas in city; compensate all property losses caused during violence; remove armed persons controlling government hospitals: Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Qatar Hospital, Civil Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Lyari General Hospital, Valika Hospital and Landhi Social Security Hospital.

It is believed that cracking down on the gangsters is comparatively easier than tackling the rival political or ethnic factions.

Our interior minister can get hold of the criminals fighting for control of Lyari.

The writer is a poet and translator.