Karachi: Targeted killings, bloodbath and beyond..

NEW YORK, USA: Pakistan’s financial capital which is also its southernmost port city – Karachi – with a massive population of almost 20 million, has witnessed a sudden spike in violence, spate of targeted killings, arson, loot, during the last 24 hours particularly. The latest downward spiral in the law and order in the city is unprecedented – almost orchestrated – according to some Karachi observers.

MQM – which is the political party that controls the nerve of the metropolis was rattled by the targeted killing of one of its top loyalists – MPA Raza Haider – a staunch worker for the last 26 years, who belonged to the Shia community. Being a MQM leader, an Urdu-speaking, and a Shia is a mix bag of bad lucks in violent Karachi. Anti-MQM forces are aplenty, in a city whose peace means peace in Pakistan – but where the battle for its turf control has seen more than 800 deaths since January, according to published reports. Just in July, if the present count is updated, it will exceed 100.

Since 6pm Monday evening when Raza Haider and his body guard were gunned down in Nazimabad, more than 50 people have been body-bagged, with dozens of vehicles, push-carts, and khokas (roadside restaurants) set ablaze – reminiscent of what happened in December 2007 (Bhutto murder)and in December 2009 (attack on Shia procession).

Each of these gory incident was hijacked by those whose objectives were beyond protests and demonstrations. So it is this time it seems.

The mob has torched dozens of vehicles, petrol pumps and shops as situation remained tense and normal life has stood still in the metropolis.

Several petrol pumps were also set on fire and the roads wear a deserted look. Aerial firing was also reported across the city.

In Liaquatabad, Karachi, miscreants set on fire a Geo News staff van. Several vehicles were also set on fire in several cities of interior Sindh.

A complete strike is being observed in Hyderabad and Sukkur, over the killing of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) MPA. Karachi is already payyah jammed (wheel jam strike).

All educational institutions in the metropolis remained closed today and examinations have been postponed.

The government has blamed the Taliban and the banned militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) for the killing of the lawmaker. Twenty people have been arrested in connection with the violence, federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the Senate on Tuesday.

Some analysts said the violence could ultimately affect the economy. Karachi is home to the country’s main port, the central bank and the stock exchange, which has so far seen thin trade and closed an hour early today because of the violence.

“This obviously raises concern and anxiety, and if these things continue, Pakistan’s economy gets undermined,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a political and security analyst, to a news agency.

“It is a pathetic situation and exposes the helplessness of the government to perform its basic duty towards its citizens,” said Rizvi.

Police and officials said that they also found evidence suggesting that militants had planned a suicide attack during Haider’s funeral, scheduled for later on Tuesday.

“On the basis of evidence available at the moment, it (the killing of Haider) was carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad.

The MQM, a coalition partner in the federal as well as the provincial Sindh government, renewed calls for a crackdown on militants after the killing of its lawmaker.

“For the past 3 to 4 years we have been pointing out and giving evidence about the presence of Taliban and extremists in Karachi,” said Wasay Jalil, a spokesman for the MQM.

“We were ridiculed at that time. But now everyone is admitting that the Taliban and the SSP are here.”

GANGS, MAFIAS

On Tuesday, a day after the killing, Karachi was tense as police and paramilitary troops patrolled deserted streets.

Hyderabad, the second largest city of the province, was also largely deserted as were other towns after the MQM called for three days of mourning.

“This could be the last nail in the coffin and could be disastrous for the stock market because as it is, volume has been below average and this may lead to foreign investors exiting the market,” said Sajid Bhanji, a director at brokerage Arif Habib Ltd, of Haider’s killing and the ensuring violence.

Karachi has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. It was a main target of al Qaeda-linked militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against militancy, and foreigners were attacked in the city several times.

“All political forces in Karachi have their armed groups,” Rizvi said. “And then there are a lot of other groups – criminal, sectarian, drug mafia.”

Including last night’s death toll, officials say at least 193 people have been killed in targeted attacks since the start of the year, although analysts and political parties say the number is likely much higher.

Mohajirs, the descendants of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, are the biggest community and dominate the city’s administration through the MQM.

It is also home to the largest concentration of ethnic Pashtuns outside the northwest.

Government officials also say criminals, including drug lords competing for turf in the city’s teeming neighborhoods, take advantage of the tension, complicating the police’s difficulties. So does the land mafia who have influence on all parties.

What lies beyond Karachi’s targeted killings and bloodbath is almost impossible to predict at the moment. “Whether it will lead to limited army control of the city or a civil-military administration is difficult to predict,” said one observer. Meanwhile both sectarian and ethnic forces appear to have made Pakistan’s largest city – its financial hub – their bed, bath and beyond!

Individual nabbed from cyber cafe for SMS to Rehman Malik

JULY 19, 3:25 PM NY Time

One of our team members based in Pakistan reported today that a highly influential leader of a student political organization, was picked up by plainclothes policemen from a Cyber Cafe in Okara for having sent text messages (SMS) to Rehman Malik slandering him and the government for Cyber Crime Law against MMS, Emails, etc.

The individual kept shouting at the Cyber Cafe that he was being picked up for directly text messaging to Malik.

The incident took place Sunday late evening around 9pm Pakistan Standard Time.

Our team member was witness to the arrest of this individual who while being pushed into the police van kept slandering Rehman Malik and accused President Zardari of being complicit in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

According to our reporter, witnesses at the scene were of the opinion that the political individual may have been the President of the Okara PSF but independent verification of this information has not been possible yet.

The arrested individual was taken to the Police Station and it is expected that he will emain in police custody.

More information to follow as we monitor the developments..

No light at the end of tunnel in Afghanistan.

JULY 17- Bob Woodward of Watergate fame appeared on Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room this afternoon. He has recently returned from Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan too.

Told Blitzer that the US commanders in Afghanistan are deeply worried. It's a primitive country- big difference between Afghanistan and Iraq. Said Iraq had oil money to fund the war against the militants. In Afghanistan there are no such situation. "Every body is growing poppy there. And if you try to stop that the local populace turns against you," Woodward quoted one of the US commanders as telling him.

Woodward said the commanders want to make sure that Obama's new policy is implemented right - that both military and economic steps are simultaneously taken. Woodwrd says "it is Obama's war now and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. On Blitzer's query if US will succed, Woodward said he wont bet on it. Said Zardari doesnt know much about governing. "He's a businessman, not naturally a politician. His only credential is that he is Bhutto's husband.

Was Maulana Naeemi Silenced?

JUN 12 - Was Maulana Naeemi, a renowned Ahle Sunnat Barelvi anti-Taliban and anti-US cleric silenced?

The News reported today that only 48 hours before his death, while addressing “Save Pakistan Ulema Convention” in Lahore, Dr Naeemi warned that if Pakistan did not stop fighting the US war and plug the money and arms supply to the Taliban from the US, India and other countries, the country’s nuclear assets and integrity would be at stake.

Did he know too much that he needed to be silenced by the dark forces and the murky pinheads? Baitullah Mehsud's TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban) claimed today the responsibility for the suicide bombing attack in Naeem's mosque-office after Juma prayers.

Maulana Naeemi suspected American and Indian hands behind the present Taliban insurgency and till his last breath was demanding exposing the elements responsible for directly supplying arms and money to the Taliban.

He has been a critic of the US presence in the region and opposed Gen Musharraf’s decision to shoulder the US war on terror in Afghanistan, and had to pay the price for his opposition by serving terms in prison.

Naeemi's attacker was clean-shaven, not bearded like many religious Pakistanis, reported the New York times citing the police and mosque officials who saw the attacker’s head after the blast. He appeared to be about 18 to 20 years old, the police said. They said the bomber was a resident of southern Punjab.

Naeemi followed a school of thought within Sunni Islam, the Barelvi, which is at odds with the more fundamentalist Deobandi school observed by the Taliban. In 2007, he and other clerics issued an edict against suicide bombing, saying that only the state can wage jihad, not individuals or groups such as the Taliban.

He had supported the military offensive in Swat and had termed Taliban a “stigma on Islam.” This month, he and other leading clerics led a rally in Lahore condemning the Taliban as “enemies of Islam and traitors.”

Nayyar Zaidi in jail on "teen sex" charges?

A friend of mine forwarded me today , a copy of an email apparently mass distributed by - The REPORT PRESS - Special Reports Media - USA- Chief Editor: Journalist SYED ADEEB.

The body of the text reads as follows:

Pakistani-American Journalist Nayyar Zaidi Still Locked Up in an Ohio Jail Since 20 March 2008.

(ReportPress.com) - Mr. Syed Haider K. Zaidi (pen name: Nayyar Zaidi)- Washington Correspondent or Washington Bureau Chief of Pakistan's Geo News TV (Geo Television Network), The News International (English newspaper) and Daily Jang (Urdu newspaper) - was arrested by the U.S.Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Police on Thursday, 20 March 2008 in Ohio, USA, on sex crimes charges. He is still locked up in an Ohio jail since March 2008.

Read the following five American media-press news reports about Pakistani-American journalist NayyarZaidi who lives in Woodbridge, Virginia, USA:

Publisher: THE INDEPENDENT - Massillon, Ohio, USA

Man Arrested for Trying to Meet Teen
By Staff Reports

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio, USA, 20 March 2008 (indeonline.com) -Authorities arrested a Virginia man Thursday accused of traveling toJackson Township to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Syed Haider Kar Zaidi, 64, of 12776 Captains Cove, Woodbridge, Va.,was taken into custody at 3 p.m. in a parking lot at 4220 BeldenVillage St. N.W., according to jail records. The arrest culminated atwo month investigation by local police and the FBI's Internet CrimesAgainst Children Task Force.

Jail records show Zaidi developed an online relationship with the girland arranged to meet her for sex in the Belden Village area. The girlZaidi was communicating with actually was an undercover officer.

Zaidi faces felony charges of attempted unlawful sex with a minor,attempted child endangering, attempted illegal use of a minor innudity-oriented material or performance and importuning. Zaidi was thetask force's 98th arrest.

Links:
http://www.indeonline.com/crime/x1012430497?view=print
http://www.indeonline.com/crime/x1059917866?view=print

More links to Zaidi story are embedded in the said email. Some of them are:

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=404372
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=405064
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=404447

All these links contain story related to Mr Zaidi and his arrest in Ohio in March 2008.

It is therefore clear that Mr Zaidi was not detained for any "national security" or "terrorism related" charges as some may have thought, perceived or believed to be, but was actually detained and arrested by local (Ohio) police and the FBI's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force on charges of attempted unlawful sex with a minor,attempted child endangering, attempted illegal use of a minor innudity-oriented material or performance and importuning.

I am still waiting for a synopsis from Mr Zaidi who promised me to send when he called me up last week. The documents that he had sent me through his wife did not cover the above episode nor did Mr Zaidi mention it to me at all. These documents were apparently on "non related" matters.

That is why I was careful not to jump to any conclusions. And, when Mr Khalid Hasan of Daily Times requested for details, I sent him the following email:

Based on documents in my possession, he has been apparently detained under "National Security" matter(s) and has been charged with one or more than one offense/crime. His docuents do not clarify this matter. (Bold emphasis by me.)

The Federal case number is 08-CR-0197. Mr. Zaidi is a defendant in the said case. Mr Zaidi promised to send me a synopsis. I still await. Will let you know more details if and when I get them. The matter is subjudice before a Federal Judge. (Bold emphasis by me).

Nayyar Zaidi behind bars in USA!

A few days back, wife of renowned Washington-based Pakistani journalist, Mr. Nayyar Zaidi, called me up and informed me that her spouse was in detention in Ohio since March 2008 and that she would like to send me some documents for review and publication on DesPardes.com. I therefore gave her my address and my Ferderal Express account number. The next day, I received a package which contained copies of correspondents Mr Zaidi had to the Depertment of Justice, FBI, etc., along with copies of his handwritten notes, observations and latest rejoinder to the Federal court judge.

Mr Zaidi has been living in Virginia, USA, for the last twenty odd years. He is a well renowned columnist of JANG Urdu and a political analyst/commentator for GEO TV, CNN, BBC Urdu and several other world media.

Mr. Zaidi called me up today from the Northeast Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio. Since our conversation was basically relevant to his detention and the papers he had arranged to send me through his wife Shaheen, I did not bother that our phone talk was being "recorded and monitored". It was a no-holds-barred-conversation but he took pain not to break rules.

Our conversation was obviously intense. This was the third time in my life that I had received a phone call from a person I knew who was behind bars and who wanted to reach out to someone outside for help. And, of all the people, when a respected Pakistani journalist-cum-columnist with a vast readership in Pakistan and elsewhere happened to be on the other end of the phone, things became different. Naturally, I offered my moral support and promised to break the news to the public on his behalf.

Without discussing with him the merits of the case and his detention, I showed my concern and promised to review the papers he had sent me.

Mr Zaidi said he had gone to Ohio to pursue his journalistic "obstruction of justice" research against those individuals who are being detained there from "all over the world". Unfortunately, he ended up being detained himself in the same facility, he said. He is awaiting trial now in which he is the defendent.

Mr Zaidi has claimed that he has been "targeted" by the FBI/DOJ and the "story" goes back to 1995 when he worked for the Pakistan Television. He was approcahed to work for the U.S. government, he said.

According to Mr Zaidi, he was visited by the Feds (FBI) sometime in 2003, and was asked, he claims, to "become an informant". But he refused.

He says he has a case against FBI/DOJ for "obstruction of justice" and wants only "due process of law" to happen.

I have asked him to writeup a synopsis of the events leading to his arrest. He promised he will send.

I then called the Press Attache of the Pakistan embassy in Washington. Mr Kiani, who happens to be the press attache, told me that he found out about Mr Zaidi's detention today only from the ambasaddor Mr. Hussain Haqaani who found out from Pakistan, he claimed.

According to Kiani, Mr. Haqqani is "concerned" about Mr. Zaidi's welfare.

Both, according to Kiani, were unaware that Mr Zaidi was in detention since the last three months.

Mr Kiani said he had been calling Mr Zaidi's residence but his wife would say that he was either overseas on an assignment or would give him "some kind of answer". Interesting!

Meanwhile, Mr Zaidi remains in detention on "national security matters", he said.