Karachi, one of the largest cities of the world, has many faces. It can be a home to countless refugees, a shopper’s delight, paradise for tourists or, referring to the current violent attacks, gallows for innocent lives.

It is not unwise to say that Karachi, being a home to millions of multiethnic people, is a ticking time bomb which is ready to explode on the pettiest of issues.

A spark of violence is all it takes to engulf the entire city into insurmountable piles of bullet riddled and tortured bodies.

This timeline continues from 2012, tracing the violence that continues to resurface time after time and provides factual insights.

January 4, 2013: Twelve people lost their lives while several sustained injuries in different incidents of firing and violence. Meanwhile, the CID police arrested three suspects, wanted for murders and kidnappings for ransom, and recovered weapons from possession.

January 5, 2013: At least four people were gunned down in different incidents of firing.

January 8, 2013: Three people were killed in incidents of violence. Two were gunned down in Baloch Goth while one was killed in Soldier Bazaar.

January 10, 2013: At least eleven people were killed in separate incidents of violence within an hour as fear spread among residents and shops were closed in certain areas. Meanwhile, an explosion ripped through a car parked at a fuel station in Karachi killing two and injuring as many.

January 14, 2013: Eight people died while at least four people were killed within an hour in different incidents of violence.

January 17, 2013: MQM MPA Manzar Imam was killed along with three guards in Karachi’s Orangi town area.

The murder sparked violence in Karachi and several other cities and towns of interior Sindh. Markets were closed, public transport disappeared from roads and petrol and CNG stations were shut down. Four men were killed and several others were injured and four vehicles were set on fire in different areas of Karachi.

January 18, 2013: Four men were killed and several others were injured and four vehicles were set on fire as the murder of the MPA sparked violence in different areas of Karachi.

January 20, 2013: Seven people were killed in incidents of target killings.

January 22, 2013: Six people were killed in incidents of firing and violence in different areas of Karachi, while the police arrested two suspects during a targeted operation. Later in the evening, a PML-N leader and his father were also shot down.

January 26, 2013: At least five people were reported killed in incidents of violence in Karachi.

Those killed included two policemen who were performing duties at an election camp in Karachi’s Korangi area and three others who were targeted in other parts of the city.

January 27, 2013: At least thirteen people were killed and several others injured in various incidents of violence.

January 29, 2013: Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a police station in Karachi, killing one policeman and wounding two others, officials said.

The attackers fired automatic weapons at the main gates of a police station in the low income and restive eastern suburb of Sohrab Goth and threw an explosive “cracker” which damaged the boundary wall before fleeing, police said.

January 31, 2013: Over a dozen people were killed in different acts of violence in the city, police and sources said.

These killings were besides that of a religious scholar belonging to the Jamia Binoria, his fellow cleric and their driver, who were gunned down on Sharea Faisal near Nursery in the afternoon.

February 2, 2013: Three people were killed in incidents of firing in different areas.

February 11, 2013: At least 15 more people lost their lives as the ongoing wave of violence persisted.

February 14, 2013: Six people were killed and seven others were injured in incidents of violence in different areas of Karachi.

February 16, 2013: Two dead bodies were found in different areas of the city.

February 17, 2013: Firing and other violent incidents left at least seven people dead.

February 18, 2013: Eight people lost their lives in different incidents of violence. Enraged mobs took to the streets and blocked roads after setting ablaze several motorcycles when unidentified gunmen killed three people in the city’s Patel Para neighbourhood.

February 19, 2013: Nine people were killed in different incidents of violence.