LIFE comes cheap on Karachi’s streets. Despite the authorities’ tall claims that the ongoing law-enforcement operation has produced results, the near daily dose of killings in the metropolis exposes such rhetoric.

It also seems that the killers don’t discriminate: from working-class victims such as small-time shopkeepers and mechanics to professionals such as doctors and academics, anyone in Karachi can fall prey to the assassin’s bullet.

Take the brutal slaying of Prof Dr Shakeel Auj, who served as dean of the University of Karachi’s Faculty of Islamic Studies, on Thursday. The highly accomplished, soft-spoken academic received a bullet in the head, mowed down in a drive-by shooting while on the way to attend an award ceremony in his honour on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

Also read: Dean of KU Islamic Studies department shot dead

In this chaotic city, one can be killed for one’s religion, ethnicity or political affiliation, while life can also be cut short if one dares resist armed criminals. It is unclear what the motive behind Dr Auj’s murder was. What is true is that in the vast majority of cases the killers are never caught. The police will file the murder in the ‘targeted killing’ cabinet, or sweep it aside as the result of ‘personal enmity’. The victim will soon be forgotten and become just another statistic in this city’s rising crime graph.

Police are looking at two possible motives for Dr Auj’s murder. Firstly, the scholar had received threatening text messages in the past and some in orthodox religious circles were not happy with his academic work and opinions. Secondly, the late professor had been vocal about the alleged racket of fake degrees. Without pointing fingers, we must remember that in today’s Pakistan both these activities — holding religious views that differ even slightly from orthodoxy, as well as exposing corrupt practices — can have lethal consequences.

While it would be a futile exercise to speculate about who was responsible for Dr Auj’s murder, the police must probe all angles to unveil the culprits and bring them to justice. Also, the authorities need to seriously consider what efficacy — if any — the ‘operation’ has had in Karachi if killers can carry on with their trade unhindered. It is sad that while murderers, militants and fanatics roam freely, ordinary citizens in the city fear for their lives. It is up to the administration and law-enforcement czars to explain why this is the twisted norm in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, September 20th , 2014