The Killing Fields of Karachi

Mid-day on Sunday, July 30, 2001, in Karachi, Shakir Latif, my brother’s childhood best buddy, a great guy, thorough gentleman and promising lawyer, was tricked into meeting his next door neighbour on the pretext of discussing a case. The neighbour killed him with a glass of juice laced with cyanide, and then proceeded, over the next week, to negotiate a ransom with his family, for the cold-blooded murder disguised as kidnapping.

Suddenly, a murder, which would have otherwise been a statistic in high crime Karachi, struck at the heart.

What was Shakir’s crime? Was it that he came back to Pakistan to work, after completing his studies abroad, unlike many of his friends? Or was it that he was doing his job, and meeting a potential client? Perhaps it was that he had the misfortune of living in a cold-hearted, deadly city, filled with people willing to kill for the greed of money. Or that he shared a town with law-enforcing agencies which are corrupt, incompetent and an accomplice to crime, where they perpetuate an environment in which people kill on the streets and walk away. Where criminals are so casual about murder that they would rather kill a hostage than hold him or her, to extort money.

It is horrendous, cruel, and a living nightmare for a young, hard-working, ambitious and good-hearted citizen of this country to be stopped dead in his tracks, by a petty criminal, a murderer with a sick mind obsessed and deranged with the greed of wealth. It is not right for life to go on, with this just being a passing reminder of how deadly our hometown has become. The senseless destruction of Shakir’s promising life must wake us up from our slumber. This is not just a level of crime to be expected in a big city. This is sick. Unacceptable. This is a free fall to a state where our country may collapse into anarchy, under the absolute rule of criminals.

We owe it to Shakir to mobilize our efforts compel the government and law-enforcing agencies to truly fight crime and to greatly improve the level of security of citizens. We must do our best to save the next innocent victim. The government must do much more than just talk about fighting crime and terrorism, reforming the police. For all the emergency measures which have been needed by our country, the transformation of the police into an uncorrupt and competent body must be given top priority. It directly impacts the perception of the criminal, the chances that the criminal estimates of getting away with crime. Today, the chances are very high. There is a free supply of poisons and weapons for purchase or hire. The police often does not need to be an adversary, but can be bought to serve as back-up.

The favorable environment for the criminal doesn’t end there. In the unlikely event of the criminal being apprehended, chances of being set free are high, through bribing the courts. Based on a study, the most corrupt institution of Pakistan are the lower courts, followed by the police.

Two things are certain: First, after the loss of my brother’s yaar, and a close family friend, life will never be the same. Second, unless we take our country back, from the edge of the abyss, ourselves, nobody else well.