KARACHI: It was just before dawn and Ahmed*, a watchman on one of the streets in a locality in Karachi, had just offered fajr (morning) prayers. As he was preparing to leave for home after working his night shift, two unknown armed men on a motorbike appeared from one end of the street and shot Ahmed four times.

The assailants did not reach for his mobile phone or for the small amount of cash in his pocket — they quickly rode off. After hearing the shots, alarmed residents hurried Ahmed to a hospital where he survived the assault and underwent medical treatment for nearly two weeks.

Although the doctors managed to treat three of the four bullet wounds, the fourth bullet that had struck his backbone left him paralysed. After getting discharged from the hospital, Ahmed, who had lived and worked in Karachi for nearly 10 years, was taken back to his village in northwest Pakistan.

“We had to take him back...there was nothing left for him...we don't know if he can recover from this,” Ahmed's older brother said.

When asked who he suspected to have targeted Ahmed, he refused to speculate and said: “What can I say? He had no enemies.”

While Ahmed was not known to be politically active, the modus operandi of the attack on him is similar to the one being employed in a fresh wave of politically motivated murders in Karachi.

Karachi, a sprawling metropolis of some 18 million people, is no stranger to the phenomenon of political violence. But the city has been experiencing it excessively for the past few months.

Of more recently, since the beginning of May, so-called scattered incidents began to occur in which unidentified men on motorcycles would shoot citizens dead. By the end of June, these incidents took the form of a fresh wave of “target killings” that left more than 70 people dead in a span of two months. Most of these murders were said to have political, sectarian or ethnic motivations behind them.

Political parties, police and paramilitary authorities and intelligence agencies are currently processing and sharing information that is expected to lead to arrests and later on trials and convictions of those involved in the killings that have scourged the city.

The city's areas where target killings have become frequent are New Karachi, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Lyari, Sohrab Goth, Korangi, Landhi, and Orangi Town.

While “every murder” is technically “counted as a target killing”, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi Waseem Ahmed says “[Personally] a target killing is a murder with a motive of sectarian, ethnic or terrorist violence. On average, some 3.6 murders have taken place in Karachi every day since January 2010.” Waseem Ahmed confirmed that most target killings occurring in the city were actually politically motivated.

“We have caught many (suspects),” said Ahmed, without stating a figure. “And most were linked to political parties. During interrogation, we have found that these criminals have taken refuge in political parties. We have been asking the political parties to expel the suspected individuals.”

Another police official investigating the murders told Dawn.com that the death toll in the incidents of target killings across Karachi just for the months of May and June stands at 75.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the police were currently investigating the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) as a group of special interest in some of the alleged politically motivated target killings.

However, MQM recently announced that 143 of its party members have also been victims of these killings since January 2009.

“MQM is being maligned...how can MQM be accused of involvement when we have lost so many workers ourselves?” argued MNA and senior MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi.

Rizvi said that although “seemingly politically motivated target killings” were taking place in Karachi, no political parties were engaged in these activities as a matter of policy.

“It is the criminal elements that sometimes take cover under political groups as well as those who are supported by the land and drug mafias...they are the ones involved in these incidents,” Rizvi told Dawn.com.

Concurring with Mr Rizvi, Manzoor Abbas, Information Secretary Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Karachi East, said that “while there are difficulties when it comes to coalition governments, we are certain that no political groups, and certainly not the ones in the Sindh government, are involved in the ongoing incidents of violence.”

Abbas reiterated Interior Minister Rehman Malik's claim that a “third power” was behind the killings and wanted to “disrupt the city's peace”. On the other hand, as Abbas restates the PPP's “full confidence” that the police “will bring to books the culprits”, none of the suspects arrested have been formally charged.

However, as PPP and MQM insist that political parties are not engaged in the killings and that “unseen mafias” are backing the violent campaign, the Awami National Party (ANP) leadership occasionally surfaces to blame the MQM for the situation.

During a press briefing in May, ANP President Sindh, Shahi Syed, pinned responsibility on Governor Sindh Ishratul Ebad, who has held positions in the MQM in the past, for the “fresh wave of target killings” in Karachi and said that the PPP “obeys every order of MQM”.

While Syed reportedly retracted his statement later on, Mohammad Amin Khattak, a member of ANP's Central Working Committee, appeared visibly annoyed when asked whether the party suspected any particular groups of targeting its workers.

“Everyone knows who is involved in these killings but no one would say or do anything about it...the same group is also deeply involved in the activities of the land mafia,” Khattak told Dawn.com.

And as MQM's Rizvi calls politically motivated target killings “isolated incidents”, which “do not threaten the coalition government in Sindh”, Khattak says the risk is all too significant to ignore.

The ANP has already lost 30 workers to target killings from January 2010 to June 2010, Khattak said, adding that “MQM is threatened by the ANP...it believes that if there are even slight changes in the city's demographic, then Karachi's political control may slip out of its hands”.

Despite the mounting death toll since the beginning of the recent wave of target killings, not a single arrested suspect has been publicly charged and convicted.

However, in a move to manage the security situation, the Sindh Home Department on June 29 extended the Rangers' additional powers for three more months.

Nazim F. Haji, founding chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), disagrees with the idea that the measure will help.

“The deployment of Rangers personnel is hardly a troubleshooter, let alone a solution,” he said.

“Sindh is spending a lot so that these personnel can be deployed...they are a paramilitary force and have not been trained to tackle the situation that they are expected to deal with here...instead we should use our finances and resources for better equipping the police whose job this really is,” Haji told Dawn.com.

Evidently, as police and Rangers fail to fix the law and order situation, political parties with the highest stakes in the Sindh administration have in principle agreed to not publicly censure one another on the subject.

And while the coalition parties still “appear concerned” on the issue, Haji, thinks “these sittings over target killing are largely fruitless exercises because the political groups have their own agendas on which they are not likely to compromise.”

“The political parties are inextricably involved in this issue...they talk about target killings and land mafias as if some outside force is behind it...when truly it is a battle for their respective turfs and these murders are a significant, real feature in that battle,” he said.

The writer can be contacted at quratulain.siddiqui@gmail.com