ISLAMABAD, July 6: Patience of the people in curfew-bound G- 6 Sector has started running thin after living in fear for their lives for three days. “We don’t know what it is achieving for the two sides, it surely is shattering our nerves,” Mohammad Sulaiman, a resident of G-6/2 sub sector, said about the unending bloody stand-off between the religious militants holed up in Lal Masjid and the security forces besieging them.
His chagrin widely represented the sentiments of thousands of people who have been suffering the curfew and the sound and fury of the battle of nerves being fought in their midst since Tuesday.
They wish an early, peaceful end to the bloody conflict, or at least longer breaks in the curfew to give them some sense of normalcy in a situation where they are hedged in by barbed wire and APCs (armoured personnel carriers) parked at street corners.
“It is so shameful, so disgusting to see Pakistanis busy killing each other,” mourned Shazia Jabeen, a resident of G-6/3.
With forces in bunkers, on rooftops and at battle positions around the Masjid the area is a virtual war zone.
“Thursday we passed another depressing and sleepless night without electricity. In any case you, cannot sleep with guns crackling around,” Sulaiman told Dawn.
Power supply to the sector snapped soon after heavy firing erupted around midnight after a heavy monsoon downpour.
Other sectors, including G-8, also suffered power outage for some hours and people there thought that the final showdown had begun.
People of G-6 also complained about short supply of food items and limited variety to the residents of the curfew-bound area. They wanted the Utility Stores Corporation to increase the number of its mobile store serving the area during curfew breaks.
Some senior residents lashed out at the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for not clearing the garbage dumps from various spots since the start of the trouble. They said stink from the mounds of garbage had made their lives miserable.
“They can easily come and pick the garbage and even sweep some of the streets when the curfew is relaxed. But they don’t,” Jameelur Rehman, a senior citizen of G-6/3, said.
While most citizens feel the government cannot absolve itself of some responsibility in the losses suffered in the crisis for it had hobnobbed with Islamic militants, many considered the Lal Masjid brand of militancy a greater threat which needed to be put down by force.