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City of Lights or City of Sorrows
Faris Kasim
Imagine
a usual weekday evening, when you are out shopping with your family
or meeting friends in Karachi, also known as the City of Lights. The
cool sea breeze refreshes you and you are looking forward to having
dinner and relaxing at night. Now imagine: within five minutes you
are running away from sporadic gunfire, hiding behind a car and
finding refuge in a staircase. This unbelievable turn of events
occurred with a friend’s mother, Ms Azra, on the evening of April
29, 2009.
After confirming the security situation with people living nearby,
she and her twenty years old daughter went to the bustling market at
Perfume Chowk in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. It was early in the evening and
news of ethnic clashes in the city had not invaded the airwaves yet.
The two ladies had been at the market for half an hour, buying
groceries and other stuff.
As they were about to enter a boutique, the shopkeeper closed down
one half of his store’s shutter, claiming that he was closing early.
Outside, panic had taken over. People went helter-skelter, cars sped
away recklessly, shops were shut down in a hurry, while of gunfire
was also heard.
Ms Azra was looking for a taxi to return home immediately when she
heard gunfire from closeby. She grabbed her daughter and ran towards
an alleyway with others. Her daughter pointed out two young boys
with handguns, firing in the air. The boys threatened one ice-cream
store to shut down or face the consequences. One kept shooting in
the air and yelling at everyone to clear the streets. He fixed his
gaze on Ms Azra’s daughter. Fearing for their lives, the two women
ducked behind a car and then managed to sneak into a staircase
inside a shopping plaza.
Mostly women and children were hidden inside the dark plaza, all
trying to call their families. Ms Azra got in touch with her family;
informing them of the mayhem and informing them to stay away from
the area. Everyone inside the plaza was white as sheet; a teenage
boy was spasmodic with terror; an elderly man was trying to calm
him. Nearly an hour later, the firing had lessened to a barely
audible degree and everyone decided to hurry home.
Ms Azra describes how the colorful market turned into a sorrowful
wasteland. Two cars lay burning while all the stores were shuttered
down or half closed. She ran to the back-lanes from where she
coordinated with her husband to pick her up.
36 people were killed on that fateful night in different parts of
Karachi. Ms Azra and her daughter were saved ‘only by the help of
God’, she says. She did not see a single policemen or Rangers person
on the scene, and adds that the cause behind such incidents is the
rising ethnic tensions between the MQM and ANP.
Although ordinary citizens of Karachi have become immune to rampant
acts of death and destruction, no one can remain straight-faced
after witnessing such an organized politico-violent campaign of
terror. Since July 2008, when the military operation began in Swat,
fear mongering of Taliban invading Karachi and killing its people
has been resonating from the government.
Intizaar Hussain wrote a story titled ‘shehre-afsoos’ about three
men who commit horrible acts of murder, rape and suicide and are
carrying their dead bodies towards the City of Sorrows. Upon
reaching their destination, they find the populace starving, with
atrophied faces and dejected thoughts living amidst rubble and
prison-like houses. When asked what they are doing at such a place,
they reply that they are cowering for survival and waiting for
death. The three men also asked how they came to such a condition.
The people answered, ‘we were welcomed at dawn by the atrocities of
our own.’ One can only hope that Karachi will remain the ‘City of
Lights’ and not turn into the ‘City of Sorrows’.
The
News
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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