KARACHI: The Jhatpat Market in the Chakiwara area of Lyari is once again buzzing with buyers as the festival of Eid gets closer. On Sunday, the market was full of people of all ages as mothers made sure they shopped enough for all of their children. The men were busy shopping for shoes and although it was afternoon, the market was already crammed with vehicles looking for a way out or a parking space.

Earlier in the year, in March, around 15 people were killed in a hand-grenade attack in the same place and a dozen others were wounded.

It was a result of a fight between the two recently divided gangs that had turned bitter. Abbas Baloch, 30, who teaches at a school, says that it was one of the worst attacks in the history of gang warfare in Lyari. “I was present at the market when I saw a few men throwing hand-grenades towards the main shopping area, which is located inside a long narrow lane. They had never attacked women and children before,” he adds. Although he survived the incident, there were a dozen others who did not.

What said to be started the fight was the killing of one of the ringleaders’ brother in an encounter a night before the attack. Ghaffar Zikri’s brother, Shiraz Zikri, was killed in a joint operation by the police and Rangers apparently in the Kalakot area. Ghaffar believed the attack was carried out on a tip-off provided by their rival gang led by Uzair Baloch, police officials say. The market was attacked at around 11am, instantly killing 12 people, eventually leading up to 15 deaths reported in a matter of hours.

Many people left their homes and shifted to other “comparatively peaceful areas” of Karachi at the time, while the Rangers personnel continued their operation in the area. As a result of the continuing fight between the gangs and having to run away from Rangers at night a peace accord was sought. Ayaz Latif Palijo of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek was asked by a group of MPAs led by Saniya Naz to step in and ask the two warring gangs to end violence.

Although the violence continued for a few days, a ceasefire was ultimately achieved. But at the same time most of the gang leaders, scared of still being hunted by the law enforcement agencies, made a dash for various hideouts. Noor Mohammad, better known as Baba Ladla, is said to be hiding in Mund, Balochistan, while Uzair Baloch was said to be in Muscat, then Dubai and is now rumoured to be in Norway.

“For a time we were relieved that they have gone,” says Abbas. “But soon some other men, who showed their affiliation with both gangs, started sending extortion chits to traders in various areas. It worried everyone as this time around there was no one to stop them.” But two months later the situation was once again better, he adds.

“It is this uncertainty that the residents have made their peace with,” Abbas says.

City SP Shiraz Nazir said that at the moment the police were looking for three of the gang members booked in an FIR (97/2014) since March — Ghaffar Zikri, Sikander, alias Sikku, and Nadeem Japanwala. “The situation is quite better than before, but not completely under our control. They [gangsters] have changed their tactics. But are still extorting money,” the SP added.

Among the newer tactics to demand protection money, SP Nazir says that eight to nine years old children are sent to various shops to deliver extortion chits. They are given Rs50 to Rs100 to do the job.

At the same time, he adds, the divide between the gangs and their subsequent escape from Lyari do not mean they have shifted their loyalty as well. “They are divided among themselves but are not politically divided as yet. So, despite their differences and rumours of another party taking hold in the area, they are still loyal to the Pakistan Peoples Party.”

As an example, he spoke about the Kachhi-Baloch conflict last year. “That conflict was purely about Kachhis demanding political representation in the provincial assembly from Lyari. It later snowballed into an entirely different issue about ethnic conflict, though there was no such issue at the root of it. It was all political.”

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2014