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KarachiThe recently inaugurated road connecting North Nazimabad to
Qasba colony while facilitating commuters of the vicinity has
resulted in increasing violence and a deteriorating law and order
situation in the entire area.
Ever since the formal inauguration of the hill-cutting road, ethnic
violence and armed clashes between activists of the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have become
routine.
A visit to the area and interviews with the local people in both
localities revealed that people belonging to both Pakhtoon and
Urdu-speaking communities were suffering at the hands of these two
groups, who have their own agendas and motives behind triggering the
ethnic violence in the area.
“Land grabbing is the basic issue over which both these groups are
fighting but they are trying to give the feud an ethnic colour. Both
Pakhtoons and Urdu-speaking people want to live peacefully in this
area and they have nothing to do with these clashes,” Arshad Hussain,
a resident of North Nazimabad Block Q, said. He admitted, however,
that since the opening of the road, residents of North Nazimabad
blocks Q and R have become insecure, not only owing to clashes
between the two armed groups but also due to increasing incidents of
street crime.
North Nazimabad Union Council (UC)-2 Nazim Perwaiz Wali expressed
similar views. “I’m a Pakhtoon but I have no doubts in saying that
both these groups (ANP and MQM) are exploiting the sentiments of
their respective communities. There is an apartment complex nearby,
and both groups want to occupy it. This is the actual reason of
violence in the area and has nothing do with ethnicity,” he said.
Wali further said that the road served no purpose other than provide
logistical support to drug-peddlers, land-grabbers and criminals,
providing them easy access to peaceful areas of North Nazimabad.
“The only solution to this problem is strict administrative action
against criminals. The police and the Rangers should be given a free
hand to deal with criminals, otherwise they will continue to fight,
and common people will suffer more,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, Amir Zareen, the Naib Nazim of the same UC (also the ANP
District Central vice president), has an entirely different story to
tell. According to him, the area is a Pakhtoon dominated locality
where a large number of ANP activists, supporters and voters live.
“On March 17, MQM activists erased ANP graffiti and painted their
party slogans in the area. This matter went to the police, and MQM
seniors apologised before SP North Nazimabad Nasir Qureshi for their
party workers’ act. The very next day, however, MQM activists came
again and not only chanted slogans against us but also hoisted their
flags,” he claimed.
He further said that when residents of the area protested against
the activities of MQM workers, the latter resorted to aerial firing,
which led to violence and armed clashes as well as attacks on police
and Rangers’ personnel.
Zareen, however, rejected allegations that ANP workers were involved
in the attack on rivals and law-enforcing agencies’ personnel, and
said that residents of the area retaliated after assuming that their
locality had been attacked by rivals.
Haider Bhatti, an official of the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan police
station, said that the issue could only be solved through political
dialogue because any action by the police and Rangers will also be
considered “hostile” and could cause further trouble. “We have
beefed up security in the troubled area, and even deployed armed
personnel on the roofs of buildings but that is a temporary
arrangement. The only solution is negotiations between the rival
parties and a permanent settlement to this issue,” he said.
People living on both sides of the road as well as those living on
the hill say law enforcing agencies should take strict action
against land-grabbers and criminals irrespective of their political
affiliation, otherwise the law and order situation in the area would
deteriorate further.
(The News International ,Karachi:Monday, March
30, 2009:By M. Waqar Bhatti)
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