In the haul carried out apparently without fear or a feeling of urgency, cash, jewellery and mobile phones were looted from the three establishments before the robbers fled the scene, unchallenged. What makes the happening particularly disgraceful was that only the day before the same bakery had been looted.
The robbers, it is reported, threatened that they would come again and would expect a bigger booty than the paltry Rs 13,000 they could lay their hands on then. That was no idle threat as it turned out, for, the very next day, true to their word, the robbers struck again and looted the very same bakery a second time! Can you beat that? Did not the bakery owners report the matter to the police after the first robbery and about the threat of another? Yes, they did according to the report.
And what did the police do? Absolutely nothing! Unbelievably, it was reported that a police mobile was parked in the vicinity of the crime but chose not to move. The mobile just drove away after the robbers had carried out their multiple burglaries and had left "in peace".
It was hardly surprising, therefore, that after the second consecutive day of robberies, the shopkeepers in the area shut shop, downed their shutters and came on the streets and were joined by a large number of local people many of whom were witnesses to the blatant attack on their security by "fearless" robbers and to the immobility of the police mobile.
In anger and frustration, the crowd resorted to blocking roads and attacked the Landhi Police Station with rocks and burning tires. This then is the law and order and security situation on the ground! It is obvious then, that the chasm between police on the one hand and the people who are supposed to be protected by them against criminals on the other, has widened to an unimaginable extent. If this the reality on the ground, what is the situation at or near "the top"?
POLITICAL POSTURING Postures adopted by various political leaders and government functionaries following the recent disturbances and the aftermath, provide an answer of sorts. MQM took the position that the Army should be called in to control the situation in Lyari.
Zulfiqar Mirza, the Sindh interior minister's reaction to this was that if Army was called in, its action should not be confined to Lyari but cover entire Karachi. The political overtone in this exchange is evident from the fact that Lyari is considered to be a stronghold of PPP while most of the rest of Karachi is considered by MQM to be its territory.
As we all know, an operation launched in Lyari by the Rangers and the police, was followed by a strong reaction from not only the people of Lyari but as well by PPP leaders in and out of the government. Their main objection was to the operation being allegedly Lyari specific (ie it spared the rest of Karachi).
Of all the people, the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said the operation in Lyari had not been launched under his orders but (he added somewhat coyly) someone else (not named) had given the orders for it. The action (ordered by Rehman Malik), was characterised by the Sindh CM not only as Lyari-specific but also as indiscriminate and that under it innocent people were detained without valid reason by the Rangers and the police.
He said henceforth "the Rangers would always take action in Karachi in collaboration with the police". Not to be outdone, the Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza declared that his department was not aware of the operation and that "when we learnt about the operation we ordered that it be stopped".
In Islamabad PPP senator Mian Raza Rabbani staged a token walkout of the Senate along with his colleagues Dr Safdar Abbasi and several other PPP leaders from Sindh and Balochistan in protest against the launching of the operation in Lyari.
Raza Rabbani regretted that the operation in Karachi was restricted to Lyari while no operation was launched in other areas of the city. Rehman Malik the security man at the federal level is taking a lot of flak from PPP in general and the security bigwigs in Sindh in particular. The effect of such postures and exchanges on the morale and effectiveness of law enforcers can well be imagined.
TARGET KILLINGS AND WEAPONS Take a look at the recent brutal and murderous happenings in Karachi which was subjected to a spate of target killings (including a beheading) spread over the best part of two weeks.
Not that target killings are new to Karachi! In a high level meeting earlier this month in Islamabad, chaired by Rehman Malik, Federal Minister for Security, the DG Rangers, Sindh, the Sindh Home Secretary and representatives of intelligence agencies provided a brief on the prevailing law and order situation in Karachi, with particular reference to target killings.
The meeting was told that 256 target killings took place in Karachi during the last six months of 2009. This was hardly news since people in Karachi are quite familiar with the daily occurrence of target killings in various localities of Karachi near their homes or places of work. The meeting was not informed as to the number of cases solved, if any, and the number of assassins apprehended in these 256 cases.
What actually follows each reported incident of target killing is this: a FIR is duly lodged against unknown person or persons and there the matter apparently ends! The usual modus operandi of the killers has two people riding a motor cycle and spraying an unwary political or other type of "enemy" with bullets and making good their escape with ease into the unknown, unlikely to be heard of again, except to repeat the crime a few days later on another chosen victim.
It is possible that a relatively small number of skilled assassins belonging to various groups in the city are going round planning and executing target killings under direction and escaping with ease to commit yet more murders. The failure on the part of police and intelligence outfits is their inability or unwillingness to anticipate and prevent the attacks as well as to go after the culprits with perseverance and commitment once the crime is committed. The do not make any difference in the final analysis except to update the horrific statistics.
SOLUTION?The meeting chaired by Interior Minister Rehman Malik took the following decisions:
1) A reward of Rs 1 million for any citizen providing a video clip or a photograph of target killing or an act of terrorism that could lead to arrest or identification of the culprits.
2) Ban on pillion riding to be strictly implemented.
3) Police and the rangers to be provided 200 motorcycles for more maneuverability and patrolling in narrow streets.
4) Immediate ban on the issuance of arms licenses.
5) Identification of the 6-months plus target killings (from July 1, 2009) and probe into the circumstances under which each target killing took place.
6) Findings to be submitted by January 20, 2010.
WILL IT WORK? As for the big money-for-video clip offer, one may infer that the police and intelligence desperately need the lucky circumstance of some ordinary citizen being on the scene of the crime at the time it was committed and photographing or filming the event with a handy device for the benefit of the police (and now his own) so as to enable our security people to get on with their job!
As for the ban on pillion-riding, it is the same on-again, off-again absurdity which people of Karachi are all familiar and disgusted with. The ban makes life yet more difficult for low and middle income people by depriving them of the less expensive way of carrying their family for shopping or visiting or taking their children to and from school or riding with a colleague to office to share expenses.
The misery is particularly galling for the innumerable people affected by the ban as there is little to show by way of any notable success in preventing target killings for all the pain and cost suffered by them. As for the decision to provide motor cycles to police and the Rangers, to make them more efficient, the less said about it the better!
The proposal to put an immediate ban on the issuance of arms licenses also begs the question: what happened to the government's declared and oft-repeated intent (not followed by any visible action) to seize all unlicensed arms in the city, especially those prohibited for the general public.
The unfortunate tie up between politics and guns is brought out by a report that there was a 1500 % increase in weapons sale in Sindh before the 2008 general elections. The Senate Standing Committee on Interior, summoned State Interior Minister Tasneem Qureshi to explain the sale of 5,986 prohibited-bore licenses in just two recent months.
Shockingly, the Committee was informed that corrupt officials were instrumental in issuing 26,000 fake licenses to unknown people. The Committee was also informed that each Senator, MNA and MPA was allowed 25 non-prohibited weapons licenses each year which they availed in 75 % of the cases. Do you observe any will anywhere to control the horrific situation? Let us see what the report on this sensitive subject has to tell us on 20 January.
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