[Dawn] 85 down. This is not a score of a cricket match; rather it's the number of people killed in Bloody Karachi in the last four days. Hoping against hope, I pray that the number does not increase any further as the day progresses.As I write these lines, television channels keep giving updates of the worsening situation in the city. Every round of violence brings a different kind of death and destruction for the people of Bloody Karachi. It seems the terrorist play out newer and different ways of terrorism in Bloody Karachi like a scientist does in a lab. The authorities are constantly feigning ignorance of the parties involved, and media reports state that unknown people are causing havoc in the city.
This time the unknown criminals are bombing houses in various areas (namely Katti Pahari North Nazimabad) using hand grenades. These attacks are unique and new, these haven't been used since the time when homemade 'bottle bombs' were made more than two decades ago. But then one knew who the opponents were in the violence.
This time sophisticated ammunition is being used by the 'unknown assailants' -- hand grenades -- which can cause more damage. This area has a concentration of people belonging to various ethnic backgrounds; the majority belong to Urdu and Pushto backgrounds that have been pitted against each other again and again resulting in a heavy toll on the lives on no one else but the people of Bloody Karachi and Pakistain.
The 'invisible unknown' hands which are always blamed for spilling blood in the city keep playing the game of death, but no one ever seems to be caught for this. Unfortunately, neither the leaders nor the people of the city seem focused enough to get to the root of the problem, or is it that no one wants to do this for vested interests.
There is also news of passenger buses targeted by 'unknown' people, while various other areas were under constant fire and many lives snuffed out, in one instant a child as young as five. This baby girl had hardly even started her life before her life was mercilessly laid down at the altar of terrorism and death. Security personnel deployed all over the city, plus the police are as helpless in the face of the invisible 'terrorists' as ever. They are unable to contain the insecurity and fear spreading among the people of this huge city. No one feels safe in the city. One doesn't know if they will return home once they leave. There is a great deal of insecurity among the people of the city. Fear, death and insecurity are the order of the day, without any respite in view.
This frustrates the people and you hear many people say that every time one hears that the Rangers' role in the city is being curtailed, the city erupts in this senseless killing. This makes people question their role and importance of the security personnel even more, but the authorities panic and decide to retain them and then the killings abate temporarily but then begin. Although these security personnel have been around in Bloody Karachi since the early 80s and more permanently during the 90s till the present, things in the city have never been completely peaceful. It doesn't sit well that our security personnel are unable to handle any form of violence from petty crimes to terrorism. The authorities should look into this lapse and try to find a remedy to actually work out a plan to bring peace in Bloody Karachi and Pakistain as a whole without feeling offended.
As for Bloody Karachi, isn't it enough that an entire generation of Bloody Karachiites has lived their lives in front of the barrel of guns and may never know the life of peace and security that all citizens have a right to. Bloody Karachiites have known little peace and it seems no concerted efforts have ever actually been taken to improve the situation in the city.
All this death and destruction in the city has developed a sense of hopelessness among the people of the city, who carry on numbly with their 'existence' between the spates of violence, outwardly indifferent but seething from within. This has brought a certain callousness and coldness in the psyche of the people of Bloody Karachi; you can easily pick a Bloody Karachiite out of the people of the rest of the country. They seem distant, alert yet indifferent to all that is happening around them. They take certain things in their stride that other cities can't since they have not been made to feel insecure and alienated through constant violence over several decades.
As always, as a Pak city weeps tears of blood, our politicians sit in their cosy seats in safe environs debating who is responsible. And instead of calming the situation with a solution, they are playing politics completely devoid of any feelings for the people who have bit the dust. This is not the time for politics which as it is has nothing to do with the problem or lives of the common Pak but a time when important decisions should be taken to actually do something to change the dynamics so that all traces of violence, terrorism can be removed from within us.
But this can only be done if someone really cares enough to do so. The lot running this country doesn't seem interested or capable of doing so. They are too busy doing TV cameos. They have no time for mundane things like politics for the benefit of the masses. Politics like this has no value and doesn't look on ones resume. They have no compunctions of using the name of the common man and his problems, whatever they may be to forward their political career.
However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
their sincerity would make more sense if there was some actual change in the current situation. Unfortunately, this has not happened so far and will not happen any time soon. The people of Pakistain will continue to be killed off, and their leaders will pretend to mourn this loss. But their sincerity will be doubted until and unless they actually do something concrete to curb or erase violence and terrorism in the Bloody Karachi and country alike. But until that happens, the people of Bloody Karachi and Pakistain will continue to be sacrificed for an unknown cause by invisible terrorists.