THOUGH the prospect of violence is never distant in Karachi, over the last year it seems that lawyers are being targeted in calculated hits. In the latest incident, three lawyers were gunned down on Wednesday in the city’s busy Pakistan Chowk area. This appears to have been a sectarian attack as senior lawyer Badar Munir Jafri, along with his son and nephew, were all members of the Shia Lawyers’ Forum. On Tuesday the legal adviser of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was murdered in the city and there are suggestions Wednesday’s attack may have been a revenge killing. Given the dismal performance of our law-enforcement agencies, reports that three policemen in a vehicle nearby did nothing to confront the attackers are hardly surprising. It is this attitude that has contributed to criminals having no fear of the police.

Around 20 lawyers were killed in Sindh last year — 15 in Karachi — while in this month alone seven lawyers have been gunned down. Many, though not all, of the lawyers killed were defending suspects with links to sectarian and political groups. In the past Karachi has witnessed the targeted killings of doctors, businessmen and professionals belonging to the Shia community. But here we must ask whether lawyers are being eliminated to make the legal fraternity think twice before taking up the brief of suspects accused in sectarian cases. This series of events does not bode well for sectarian harmony in Karachi. If this disturbing trend is not checked now, it may spark much larger communal strife. There is no reason why law-enforcement agencies cannot crack down on the sectarian outfits believed to be behind the violence. Police claims that a ‘third party’ is responsible for the killings do not cut much ice and amount to denying the actual problem — that of armed sectarian militias. Police authorities have reportedly sought to work out a ‘decisive strategy’ to stop the killings. The most decisive moves in this regard would be to dismantle sectarian groups, put suspects on trial and punish those found guilty. But does the state have the political will to take these bold steps?