| Because they've been busy in Lyari recently. |
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
is one of the oldest towns in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, with a population of over one million. According to Yahya Baloch, a teacher of history, Lyari was first called Dirbo, but later renamed Kolachi-jo-Goth after a fisherwoman who settled in the town. "It was inhabited mainly by fishermen of Baloch descent."
Eventually, the bed of the Lyari River was reclaimed for housing. On the other side of the Lyari River, "Khadda" had already been built to accommodate fisherman who were removed from Machi Meanee in 1870.
Gang wars
In 1964, Dad Muhammad, also known as Dadal, formed a gang with his brother Sheru, who worked at Rex Cinema, and began to illegally sell Hashish. Dad Muhammad was the father of Rehman Baloch, now known as Rehman Dakait. Together, Dadal and Sheru took on the biggest drug peddler in Bloody Karachi, known as Kala Nag. Nag was later killed in a police encounter.
Nag's son Fazlu (or Kala Nag II) and Iqbal Dakait aka Babu competed with rival Haji Lal Mohammad aka Lalu, who was Rehman Dakait's godfather. In the 1990s, Rehman consolidated his power in Bloody Karachi with the support of PPP-backed Khaled Shahanshah and others.
In the mid-1990s, Rehman Dakait kidnapped Saleem Memon, a trader from the Kharadar area, for ransom. Lalu asked Rehman to release the man for free, but secretly took the ransom himself. Ties between the two men broke down after that.
Later, Lalu's son Arshad Pappu kidnapped businessman Faiz Muhammad - who was Rehman's cousin - and killed him. Faiz's son Uzair Baloch eventually became Rehman Baloch's successor.
Uzair now heads the controversial People's Amn Committee (PAC) in Lyari, Lalu operates from Dubai, and his son Arshad Pappu was recently released by the police. Both the groups claim links with the Pakistain People's Party.
"The People's Amn Committee or Lyari Amn Committee had traditionally been backed by the PPP. The Sindhi elements in the party wanted to increase its influence in Bloody Karachi," a source in the party said. "The idea backfired."
People's Amn Committee
"We formed the PAC in 2008, when I came back from jail," Uzair Baloch said. "There was a feeling in Lyari that there is no one to look after us and that we had been deprived of our rights. It is more or less a pressure group working for the betterment of Lyari." Uzair said the group included health, legal aid and education committees that helped the people of Lyari. "It also promotes peace between various communities. Our members include people from all sects, religions and ethnicities."
Uzair said his father and uncle Rehman Baloch were PPP supporters, and so was the rest of Lyari. "We were the foot soldiers of the Bhuttos and of President
Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
," he said. "But the PPP has betrayed us."
He criticised the party for the recent law-enforcement operation in Lyari. "We did whatever the party asked us to do, including taking on the MQM. And now they have unleashed the police on us."
Uzair's rivals, Haji Lalu and his son Arshad Pappu, are said to have been backed by the MQM. He said Arshad had threatened in a phone call that he would arrive on a Sindh Police vehicle and occupy his house.
"We feel betrayed," he said. "First they killed Rehman Baloch, and now they will kill me."
Law-enforcement operation
The ongoing law-enforcement operation in Lyari has been sanctioned by the top authorities in the PPP and a close relative of President Zardari is monitoring it personally.
Nabeel Gabol, the People's Party MNA from Lyari, recently survived an liquidation attempt after he was banned by the PAC from entering the city.
Former Sindh home minister Manzoor Wasan was recently sacked for being too close to allied parties. He declined to comment on the operation, but added, "I tried my best for things to go back to normal."
More than 20 people have been killed in the operation so far, eight of them coppers. The operation is now in its final stages and Uzair Baloch, Zafar Baloch and Shahid Baloch are among primary targets. Arshad Papu has meanwhile set up offices in Lyari.
Bloody Karachi police chief Akhtar Husain Ghorchani denied that police were using or siding with rival gangsters in Lyari.
A source in the police said intelligence and law-enforcement agencies had already initiated another wider operation. "We have picked up criminals and hit mans from the MQM, PPP, ANP and Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
."