Karachi News


DAWN/The News International, KARACHI	8 February 2009, Sunday, 12 Safar 1430

www.karachipage.com (click on underlined key-words/dates to get more details)
Supporters in fear of feudals: MQM
Watchman beaten to death in Soldier Bazaar
Decomposed body of young woman found
Protesters clash with police, against ‘encroachments’
Roadside encroachments: the other side
‘Muslim monarchies complicit in attack on Gaza’
Cop killed, another hurt in Bolan (more)
BLUF claims responsibility for kidnapping UNHCR official (more)
3 RAW agents arrested in Lahore (more)
Riots continue in DG Khan (more)
Taliban high court extending writ to Dir (more)
Militants storm Nato terminal, destroy containers (more)
Taliban behead kidnapped Polish engineer (more)
Militants venture into Punjab, kill 8 security men in Mianwali (more)
5 Taliban among 11 killed in Swat (more)
8 militants die in Bajaur (more)
Supporters in fear of feudals: MQM
KARACHI, Feb 7: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that although millions of people in the country are joining his party, they are reluctant to openly support it due to constraints and pressures of the feudal.

He was addressing via telephone from London a party meeting held at the MQM’s headquarters, Azizabad, said an MQM statement.

He was of the opinion that the people were silently supporting his party due to the fear of losing their houses to influential people or landlords and feudals.

Mr Hussain called upon the members of his party to keep a close eye on the circumstances and remain united and organised and to play their active role for promoting the philosophy of the MQM.

Among others members of the MQM coordination were also present.—APP

Watchman beaten to death in Soldier Bazaar

A watchman was beaten to death by unidentified people in the Soldier Bazaar police limits, while six alleged prostitutes were arrested by the Preedy police.

The body of 60-year-old Amanullah was found from the Soldier Bazaar police limits. The police said that they received information that a body was lying at the doorstep of an under-construction bungalow (No. 109) situated in Gali-2, Garden East.

A patrolling mobile recovered the body. The deceased was killed by unidentified people tortured him and smashed his head in. Amanullah was a watchman at the under-construction bungalow.

The victim’s brother, Sarwar, said that Amanullah was killed due to some personal enmity. He was a permanent resident of Bajaur Agency and leaves behind a widow and five children. A case was registered and inquiry is under way.

ARRESTS: The Preedy police arrested six women including their leader from the Bohri Bazaar area. The police said that they had received complaints from residents of the area who said that a network of prostitutes was roaming in the lanes of Bohri Bazaar and Sharah-e-Iraq.

Early Saturday morning, a raid was conducted along with female police officer Sakina Begum. Six women were caught red-handed along with their leader. They were taken to the police station and a case was registered against them.

Suspected Mangal Bagh gang members arrested: The Ferozeabad police station claimed to have foiled a robbery bid and arrested three terrorists belonging to the Mangal Bagh group and recovered arms from their custody.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jamshed Town Javed Akber Riaz said that five men were planning to commit a robbery at Meezan Bank, Allama Iqbal Road. The suspicious activities of these criminals were spotted by Ferozabad SHO SI Aurangzeb, who was on patrol and checking police deployment around banks.

The police party approached the suspects. On seeing the police, the bandits opened fire, which was retaliated and after an encounter three of the accused were arrested, while two of their accomplices escaped from the scene in a white Toyota Corolla car. The arrested accused identified themselves as Abdul Rahim, Zamin Dad Shah, and Sher Mohammad.

The first two belong to Mardan whereas the third hails from Kohat, NWFP. The police recovered two shot guns and two pistols from their possession. During the initial interrogation, the accused confessed their involvement in numerous bank robberies in Karachi, Lahore and Multan. They said that they belonged to the Mangal Bagh group.

One of the accused had recently come from Dubai. These robbers were also involved in hundreds of cash-snatching incidents throughout the city. It was also learnt that they had thriving business enterprises back in NWFP and all the money obtained from robberies was pumped into these businesses. One of the accused owns a franchise of a multinational company.

The men disclosed that they had kept their target bank under surveillance for about 20 to 30 days before they actually committed the robbery. In many cases, they lured the security guards on duty while in others, they overpowered them before committing the crime. Two members of the gang, Dilbar Khan and Haji Salauddin, were arrested by the CID just two days ago and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them.

Decomposed body of young woman found

A decomposed body of a young woman wrapped in a bed sheet was found in the Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) police limits on Saturday.

The decomposed body bore torture marks and the woman was said to be around 30 years old. It was found in a sewerage drain near the National Oil Refinery situated in Korangi Sector-31-A.

The female MLO at the JPMC said that the body was at least eight days old. The victim’s face was badly smashed with a heavy rock.

MISHAPS: An elderly man was killed in a road traffic accident in the Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) police limits on Saturday.

Sixty-year-old Muhammad Mustufa died when a speeding Ilyas Coach (PE-1293) ran him over near the Qayyumabad traffic signal while he was crossing the road.

Later the area police arrested the coach driver Khalil, seized the vehicle and registered a case. The police said that the deceased was a father of five and lived in North Nazimabad.

Protesters clash with police, against ‘encroachments’

KARACHI, Feb 7: Scores of residents of Hazara Colony turned violent on Saturday and blocked the main railway track for several hours in protest against an operation launched by the Pakistan Railways to remove what it described as encroachments on its land.

Witnesses said that on Saturday morning at about 9.30am a railway team equipped with heavy machinery and backed by the railway police reached Hazara Colony, near Kala Pul, to demolish unauthorised structures on the directives of the railway’s divisional superintendent (DS). They said the team demolished the outer walls of two houses before coming close to the office of a political party which the team also wanted to demolish.

The railway team met with strong resistance as enraged people pelted the team members with stones, forcing them to leave the area.

However, minutes after the incident, the protesters gathered on the railway tracks and staged a sit-in in protest against what they described as the illegal action of the railway authorities.

Some of the protesters carried the tri-colour flags of the Pakistan People’s Party. The protesters blocked the main railway track, stopped a passing passenger train and some railway engines and pelted them with stones.

Raising slogans against the railway authorities, the protesters said they had been living in the area for the past 30 years and they would not allow anyone to demolish their homes in the name of an anti-encroachment operation.

Due to the blockade of the tracks, the railway authorities had no option but to suspend rail traffic and stop trains at other stations.

Witnesses said the DS of Railways, Mir Mohammad Khaskheli, accompanied by a contingent of railway police, reached the scene and reportedly asked the agitators to end their blockade otherwise he would use force against them.

The protesters refused to oblige him, and the police started a baton-charge against them, lobbed teargas canisters into the crowd and fired into the air. The protesters ran for cover but returned within minutes and blocked the rail tracks again.

However, the sources said that backchannel negotiations were held between the local leadership of the political party and the railway authorities after which the latter assured the former that no further operation would be carried out and the protesters lifted the blockade.

Talking to Dawn, an office-bearer of the PPP District South, Shahbaz Akhtar, said the railway team tried to demolish the party’s office (city area 113) in Hazara Colony, causing the residents to see red. “We had recently renovated the office, but the railway authorities wanted to demolish it. We were informed on Friday night about a possible action and we were prepared when they (the team) arrived,” he added.

PPP blames Railways for rumpus Though admitting that supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party were involved in Saturday’s melee which occurred after Pakistan Railway authorities tried to launch an anti-encroachment drive in Hazara Colony, the party’s acting provincial information secretary and Special Assistant to the Chief Minister, Syed Waqar Mehdi, claimed that the Railway authorities acted in haste and should have given notice if they wanted to carry out the operation.

“Party people were involved. However, the Railways’ divisional superintendent did not inform the residents. Notices should have been issued. We have talked to the Railways authorities. They should have informed our party,” he said in response to Dawn’s queries.He claimed that PPP leaders helped mediate an end to the dispute, which saw the protesters clash with law-enforcement officers, while railway traffic was also suspended for some time as the protesters blocked the tracks.

“We are against illegal encroachments. We will never support them. However, new encroachments must not be clustered with old katchi abadis and goths, some of which are three to four decades old. If the Railways officials hadn’t acted in such haste, the issue wouldn’t have gotten out of hand. They should have at least given one week’s notice. If the area nazim or the cantonment board had been involved in the matter, the problem could have been solved. We are willing to help,” Mr Mehdi added.

When asked if it was true that Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had called off the anti-encroachment operation, Mr Mehdi said the Sindh Assembly had passed a resolution which protected old goths and settlements from being uprooted.

“The resolution exists. This was an old settlement. We want everything done through dialogue. Not everything can be solved through police action. We have contacted Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and complained to him about the (local) Railways authorities.”

At least nine trains were delayed from 30 minutes to three hours at different stations as traffic on the main line remained suspended on Saturday following a demonstration by people protesting against an anti-encroachment operation by the railway authorities, said an official.

Roadside encroachments: the other side

Inayat Ali is a pushcart vendor who has been selling seasonal fruits at a street in Saddar Town for 22 years, but half the money he earns is extorted before he reaches home on a daily basis.

The earnings he scrapes together to feed his family and educate his children end up in the pockets of officials of the land department of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) just so he can have permission to park his cart on the street. “I pay Rs100 to the police, Rs50 to the traffic police, and Rs25 to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation,” said Ali helplessly.

Ali has to pay the extortion because his business is not legally registered. His pushcart is considered an encroachment on city roads, and along with thousands of others like him, he must pay ‘protection money’ to keep operating. Due to the mammoth population of the city, it is impossible to determine the exact number of pushcarts and stalls working off the roads, but it is suspected that millions of rupees are extorted everyday from the people who run them.

Some days, Ali earns so little he cannot even afford to pay the protection money, but he is lucky: because he has been here for so long, he has friends in the right places and so can get away with waiting a whole day before paying them. There are also days when Ali earns just enough to pay off the officials, but has nothing left to take home. “There have been many times when we had nothing to eat except for the fruits on my pushcart,” he told The News. “The government should get rid of these people so that I can run my business in peace,” he added fervently.

Ali is not educated, but he knows that matters are different in other countries. “In India, every pushcart is registered with the local authorities and issued a number, like the registration number of vehicles,” he said. “These pushcart vendors pay tax to government and don’t have to pay anyone else.”

Ali admitted that he and others like him obstruct traffic, but argued that they had become part of the system, and that it would be impossible to get rid of them entirely. “If carts and stalls are registered and vendors made to pay a fee to the local government, billions of rupees could be earned and better spent,” he pointed out.

Najmuddin Sikandar, Former Director Land and current District Officer (DO) Recovery CDGK, agrees. “If such people are brought under some legal mechanism with certain conditions, it could not only provide them with relief but enhance the local government’s revenue,” he said.

Sikandar explained that during the era of Abdul Sattar Afghani, different administrators had attempted to draw this underprivileged and untapped sector into the tax net, but their efforts were futile. Gulberg Town was the first to install cabins in its limits and regularise such encroachments, but the project failed. Similar attempts were made in Urdu Bazaar and Hyderi market, but it has been learnt that they only proved to be a means for certain CDGK officials to mint money. “The groups extorting money are so powerful that they have suppressed all efforts to have a reserved hawker zone,” said Sikandar, a statement confirmed by another CDGK official on condition of anonymity.

“The stakes in this business are very high,” said the official. “Every month, billions of rupees are extorted out of these pushcart vendors, stalls and cabin owners. Even Islamabad gets a share of the money.” The official added that the issue had become so complex that nothing short of a revolution would settle it.

“It is a multi-billion-rupee issue,” he said. “Towns in Karachi have the authority to take a decision and improve their monetary situation, but there are hundreds of people in the city who have become millionaires through precisely such extortion.” Despite the pessimism of those in higher offices, Inayat Ali is hopeful that elected representatives may be able to bring about a change. “We have voted for them. It is now their responsibility to protect us.”

‘Muslim monarchies complicit in attack on Gaza’

Major Muslim monarchies and governments indirectly support Israel because MOSSAD provides them intelligence to support their rule, said Dr Kaiser Bengali at a seminar late Friday evening at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST). The event was part of the Gaza-Palestine Solidarity Week (February 2 to February 7).

“The Muslim world has not shown the expected reaction to Israeli attacks on Gaza while citizens in their respective countries expressed their anger by demonstrating on the streets. Nations take positions according to their interests but don’t take positions as to what is right and wrong,” he said. Dr Bengali further said that the European Union (EU) and United States have now started to rethink and redesign their strategies as cost relative to benefits is mounting and Muslim militancy is costly to the West.

Mehdi Masud, former diplomat and political analyst, said that the issues of Palestine and Israel should be solved through UN resolutions and the UN should play its role in initiating dialogue.

Visiting fellow and research scholar at the Collective for Social Science Research, Faiza Mushtaq, stressed the need to create awareness about the issue and to clearly highlight the victims of the Gaza conflict. She also compared the reaction of Taliban versus the US and Pakistan Army to Palestine versus Israel. She further said that Israeli attacks backed by their air strikes on Gaza were supported US and were an indication of the failure of US policies in the Middle East.

Head of media at Manhattan BBDO, Arif Jhumra, said that the camera can play a very important role as a weapon. Photographs can make a difference and can bring change and force governments to act and take corrective measures.

Cop killed, another hurt in Bolan

MACH: A police official was killed and another sustained critical injuries when unknown miscreants ambushed their vehicle in the Gokard area of the Bolan district late on Saturday night. Officials said a police party was on routine patrol in the area when it was fired at near the Gari Nala area. As a result, police official Maula Bakhsh died on the spot while another official was wounded critically, and was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

BLUF claims responsibility for kidnapping UNHCR official

QUETTA: An unknown separatist group claimed responsibility on Saturday for abducting an American working for the UN refugee agency in Pakistan, a local news agency reported.

John Solecki, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Quetta, was kidnapped on Feb 2, after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver.

A spokesman for a group called Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) told the Online news agency they had kidnapped the man to make the United Nations pay attention to the “plight” of the Balochi people.

“We have three demands, and if our demands are not met, then John Solecki will lose his life,” a spokesman, identifying himself as Shahak Baloch, told the agency.

“We want the United Nations to secure the release of 141 women in Pakistani torture cells, provide information about more than 6,000 missing persons, and resolve the issue of Baloch independence under the Geneva Convention.”

The group has not been heard of before, and the name is confusingly similar to the well known Balochistan Liberation Front.

3 RAW agents arrested in Lahore

LAHORE: Law enforcement agencies on Saturday arrested three suspected agents of the RAW from Badian Road, Lahore Cantt. Lahore SSP (Operation) Ch Muhammad Shafiq told APP that fake passports, identity cards and maps were recovered from them. According to their fake identity cards, their names are Muhammad Kamran, Muhammad Umer and Sarfraz. They have been taken to an undisclosed place for investigation. They had allegedly provided information about religious leaders to the RAW and were involved in fanning sectarianism in the country.

Nawaz phones Gilani from UK

LAHORE: PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif on Saturday called Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani from London. Nawaz thanked the prime minister for inquiring about the health of Hasan Nawaz and sending him a bouquet.

Riots continue in DG Khan

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Riots continued here on Saturday following the suicide attack on a mourning procession two days back.

Hundreds of protesters tried to torch shops at various places and burnt tyres on roads. The protesters, armed with sticks, continued to move on the city roads. All the markets, educational institutions and banks remained closed. The inter-city and intra-city transport on all the routes was missing.

Police have shifted the remains of the suspected suicide bomber to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan but did not register the FIR of the incident.

At the Kalma Chowk, the protestors attempted to torch shops but the traders pelted them with stones.

Later, the protesters and the shopkeepers exchanged fire. As a result, Wajid and Qasim sustained injuries. They were taken to the DHQ Hospital. The condition of Wajid is said to be critical.

The protesters damaged a number of shops in the Manka Canal area in the presence of the police.

Taliban high court extending writ to Dir

CHAKDARA: The Taliban have set up their high court in Kabal Tehsil of Swat, which is fast extending its writ to this town and other parts of Dir district with people taking their litigations to the THC (Taliban High Court) for settlement under the “Islamic Shariah”.

Shuttling between Kabal and Malakand while staying for a couple of nights at Chakdara, this correspondent spoke to a number of local people in Malakand, Thana, Kabal, Warsak, Batkhela and Shergarh about the THC, which has generated a lot of enthusiasm.

Groups of people secretly visit Khalil Mulla, a Taliban leader and FM 91 radio sermon speaker, whose actual name is Mohammad Alam Binori (from Binori village in Swat). This Taliban stalwart issues decrees on radio under Islamic edicts that are mostly translated into “Shariah punishments” and “Jihad activities”.

Listening to his sermons, groups of 15-20 suicidal terrorists assemble at Pyochaar, where they are asked to line up for “the next mission”. When asked who would go for the next ‘Fidaaey’ attack or suicide attack, all of them come forward chanting Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great). The organiser writes their names on separate pieces of paper for a ‘Fidaeey draw’, and the one thus selected is congratulated by others.

This is every day routine for the Pyochaar residents and while all this goes on, there is no police or Army contingent around. Then these Taliban fire into the air jubilantly, and the selected boy is taken to the Taliban local headquarters where he is given the task.

“I wonder why Pyochaar has been left at the mercy of these people by the Army, though they attack the houses of people who listen regularly to Mullah Khalil’s sermons on FM-91,” said a resident who planned to leave the area along with his family and visited a notable in Mardan last week for help in renting a house for the family.

His friend (names are dangerous to mention) told The News that scores of people were lashed publicly in Pyochaar and Mingora daily for alleged crimes. The THC issues convictions from dawn to dusk, and its ‘speedy justice’ is becoming popular with the local people. But the business is badly hurt, as most of the convictions are issued on crimes related to trade on credit and profit. The practice is mostly interpreted by the THC as “usury”, which is prohibited in the Islamic law, say the Taliban.

“Look at these boys,” said an elder of the area. “Not long ago they were supposed to live on village leftovers. They were treated as low-character boys here, but now they are running their high courts.”

He was referring to the Pakhtun tradition of regarding the Mullah and the Talib as mosque-creatures, who were always looked down upon for their unproductive social character and for indulging in immoral activities.

Another elder said, “These boys force people to listen to the FM-91, and when the military people find some one doing so, they launch attack on his house. We are hostage to both sides; we are caught in the crossfire, and there is no escape. The military people tell us to leave the villages as they plan more attacks on terrorists. The Taliban warn us against leaving the villages. They issue warnings that if we leave, they would attack us on our way out. Mullah Khalil even begs to the people not to leave. He tells them that they are fighting for them and Islam. If you leave the villages our cause would be defeated.” They also behead people who defy the Taliban or leave the villages. The headless bodies are found every day on the Zeba (previously Green) Chowk.