KARACHI: On top of the gang warfare in Lyari, religious seminaries seem to be making inroads into the crime-infested locality, according to the residents.

For months now, the elders from the area have tried to bring about some reduction in the continuing gang warfare in the area. However, in recent weeks, reports of religious seminaries and banned militant organisations recruiting men from the area have set alarm bells ringing among the residents, who fear that the already complicated situation may go out of hand.

A senior activist from the area and former worker of the National Awami Party, Lala Faqeer Mohammad, told Dawn that there was a “constant and heavy flow of weapons coming to Lyari”.

“The kind of arms that are used during night-long gangland battles do not sound like they are locally-made ones. But since we are activists, we prefer keeping quiet as it puts our lives in danger.”

Four days back a truck was stopped by the law enforcement agencies near Karachi’s Dhobi Ghat. The driver and his assistant inside were arrested as a large cache of weapons, including sub-machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket launchers, was recovered from the truck along with 40 kilograms of hashish. On further investigation by the law-enforcers it was revealed that the consignment was coming from Balochistan’s Qila Saifullah and was on its way to Lyari.

The Karachi police chief, Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo, said that the cache of weapons was further going to be distributed “among the gangsters and the madressahs now operating quite openly in Lyari”.

“But it becomes very difficult for us policemen to raid a madressah as they have sympathisers and it ends up creating a huge furore.”

A Pakistan Peoples Party activist from the area said that Niazi Chowk in Daryabad, Shah Baig Lane in Baghdadi and Nayabad were known places from where banned militant organisations such as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) and Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) have been quietly operating for the past three years.

“These operations include, among other things, asking for charity from shopkeepers and residents alike, asking for sacrificial animals hides, and recruiting young men and women from the area,” the activist added.

Explaining further, the activist said that two years back two women suicide bombers were arrested in Peshawar and on further investigation it emerged that both belonged to Lyari’s Niazi Chowk.

“This is a known fate of a backward area,” said Faqeer Mohammad. “Lack of education and unemployment spill out in such ways. There’s a double game being played in Lyari. Religious extremists are going to be an alternative force in the area if gangsters are contained.”

Around eight to 10 houses were forcefully vacated by the warring ringleaders as a fresh bout of violence took place in the Lyari’s Rexer Lane, Kalakot, Chakiwara, Niazi Chowk and Khadda Market areas in recent days, the area people said.

Among the areas, the fight in Rexer Lane and Kalakot is said to be intense as it involves Amjad Lashari’s men who are involved in a turf war with the banned Peoples Amn Committee (PAC).

Amjad Lashari, a brother of former union nazim Rauf Baloch, was gunned down by the police in June this year in an alleged police encounter which his men think was orchestrated by those close to PAC leader Uzair Baloch.

Amidst all this is the role of the law enforcement agencies which is looked at suspiciously by both the residents and the warring groups, as Faqeer Mohammad put it: “It seems they are taking sides with one group or the other which makes it difficult to approach them for help”.

Additional IG Thebo said that the policemen were “doing their job despite losing men in the ongoing operation in Karachi”.

Speaking about the presence of banned militant organisations in Lyari, he added that “they do not have the kind of influence in Lyari as they do in the district west of Karachi”. But those residing in the area don’t agree with the statement. As the activist said: “They [banned religious groups] don’t merely have a presence, they are growing in influence and numbers. It is only a matter of time that they’ll be the third force the people will be faced within the coming weeks.”

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014