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| India-Pakistan |
| Police in Karachi sitting ducks |
| 2003-11-01 |
| In this case, the terrorists have nothing to do with Jihad, but instead belong to the ethnic terrorist party known as the Muttahida Quami Movement MQM, which like the Sipah-e-Sahaba, is also a political party. But as long as these killings are going on, it can’t be good for the rounding up of al Qaeda in Karachi. When Zeeshan Qazmi, a police official, was mysteriously murdered recently in Karachi, hacks were quick to note that at least 24 police officials had been murdered in the last twelve months and all of them had been part of the Operation Clean-up from 1992-96 that was targetted against one particular party of terrorists. This has so scared other police officers from those times that most have begged to be transfered out of the province immediately. But no such luck. The administration is in the hands of the very party whose associates and cadres were then at the receiving end of the stick from the police and rangers in the 1990s. The Home Depot has refused to consider the transfer requests and ordered a complete ban, thus making scores of police oficials sitting ducks in Karachi and Sindh. This is the price for the real PM’s guided democracy. The background to this is very complex, and not that relevent to the WOT, suffice to say, the MQM are made up of Indian Muslim immigrants to Pakistan, who dominante Karachi but are politically under represented. Back in the 90’s all hell broke lose as the MQM fought a miniture civil war with their ethnic rivals, this was just before the Shia-Sunni conflict went into full swing. The Pak authorities dealt with the MQM problem by encouraging a splinter faction (of course!) which then went to war with the MQM. At the same time, the police declared open season on MQM members, extrajudicial killings claimed hundreds of lives, while the MQM leader fled to England. But that was a long time ago, and now the MQM has reached an agreement with the Pakistani government, and are being allowed to kill members of the splinter faction, as well as the cops who had formerly had state authorization to hunt down and kill them. Incidently, the ISI used groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jihadis as a way of weakening the MQM, which lead indirectly to the sectarian terrorism that has plagued Pakistan ever since. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #3 I'll have to add police officer in Karachi to my growing list of jobs I never want. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-1 8:37:02 PM |
| #2 Home Depot? they're everywhere! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-1 9:08:42 AM |
| #1 This has been said before, but I'm ever impressed by Mr. Moloney's knowledge of the "land of the pure", especially since, IIRC(?), it 's research-based (not an expatriate). Frankly, I can't even begin to make sense of what's going on there... Btw, the WOT seems to be mostly a war against an arab fascism which is sweeping the muslim world (including french arabs, now officially represented by the muslim brotherhood), and its awed followers; I find it very depressing, that the people successfully trying to impose their beliefs all hail from corrupt, failed and ugly societies. What I find even more depressing is the unability for democracies to acknowledge this and stand for their values. In this sense, whatever may be the afterthoughts for the WOT, the US position might be considered the most "moral". Statu quo is not our friend. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-1 7:41:54 AM |