KARACHI, March 19: At night, when traffic on the roads becomes thin and shopkeepers pull down shutters, a different kind of business begins in certain parts of the city.
Armed youths on motorcycles and in cars are seen roaming about mainly in the eastern parts of the city on what they explain to people as their ‘security rounds’.
Raza Ahmed described such reports as idle gossip until he experienced it on the night between March 14 and 15. “I was on my way in my car from my sister’s home in Gulshan-i-Iqbal,” he recalls the episode. “I was intercepted at Landhi No 6 by two armed motorcyclists followed by a car, in which I could see at least four persons. I was convinced that I would be robbed and killed if I resisted.”
Under immense fear, the 32-year-old banker, however, received an absolutely different response from the gunmen. They asked him to get off the car and asked various questions of personal nature before letting him move on.
“They asked me my name, profession, address and where I was coming from. I was really surprised but, thank God, they didn’t harm me. I don’t believe that they were area youths. They were quite polite.”
For Mr Ahmed the gossip in his neighborhood turned out to be true on that night, but many residents in almost half a dozen areas of the city have been going through almost the same agony everyday for the last couple of weeks. They have realized that the area they are living in is now ruled by armed youths at night.
Anwar Farooq of Malir shares similar experiences with Dawn and recalls how he was asked a series of questions by four ‘armed boys’ on two motorcycles in Model Colony while he was going home after getting off work at Quaid-i-Azam International Airport in the small hours of the day.
“I was so frightened that I gave away my cellphone and wallet before they had uttered a word,” he says. “But they returned those articles and said they were only on ‘security duty’ and randomly checking people for that purpose.”
People in Shah Faisal Colony and Gulistan-i-Jauhar have nothing different to reveal. Besides the mysterious movement of the armed men in the areas, gunshots also crackle all night.
Amid hours-long load-shedding, intense firing and speeding of vehicles through the streets has not only robbed these residents of sleep but has also set alarm bells ringing in their minds amid warnings issued by political leaders about an imminent breakdown of law and order in the city.
“A big cache of arms and ammunition is being distributed in the metropolis as a part of conspiracy to target MQM workers and sympathizers,” Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain told a gathering of workers and supporters on the telephone from London at a programme held to observe the 24th founding day of the party the other night. Clashes between workers of the MQM and the Muhajir Quami Movement have also fuelled speculation that the days of pitched battles may return to the areas currently controlled by armed youths at night.
It is worth noting that areas in control of armed people remained centres of bloodshed and killings of opponent party workers for 10 years after June 1992, when the Muhajir Quami Movement (Haqiqi) emerged as an opponent of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in a few localities.
The authorities, however, appear aware of the recent mysterious activities in these areas. They believe the situation will become normal once the new political set-up takes over the provincial administration following the Feb 18 elections.
“It’s a kind of display of strength in the particular areas by various groups,” says Arif Ahmed Khan, Sindh’s home secretary. “But we believe it will settle down once the new government comes into power and addresses these issues.”
