Eyewitness: Karachi, May 12, 2007

Here is another report by a blogger with references that show that the whole thing was preplanned.

Salay sara kalay rung kay thhay

President of Pakistan says, ``Karachi nay aaj hummai’n apnee takat dikhaee.

``For me, the first indication of the coming slaughter took place on the night of 11 May when Geo reported that five unidentified men shot dead a private security guard employed by a shopkeeper who had refused to succumb to their demand to shut down his shop on Shahrah-e-Faisal (Drigh Road).

What was attention-grabbing was the fact that this shop was located at Falak Naz Plaza, the very point where the exiting road from the airport connects with Shahrah-e-Faisal.

Geo TV then quoted an MQM spokesman who blamed the murder on Punjabi-Pakhtoon Ittehad (PPI) but this was very soon contradicted by eyewitnesses who told Geo that the culprits were dark-skinned (‘kalay rung kay thay’), in other words they were suggesting that the killers were neither Punjabi nor Pathans. The insinuation was clear – according to them the killers were most likely members of the MQM.

Then, as The News reported on the morning of 12 May:

… the police in Karachi on late Friday night blocked sections of Shara-e-Faisal and its link roads, forcing hotels, shops and petrol pumps to close down. The law-enforcement agencies used containers and trucks to block streets and roads that open to Shara-e-Faisal.

After vehemently denying it for days the MQM finally confessed last week that it had been responsible for blockading all roads leading to Shara-e-Faisal, the arterial road linking the city to its airport:

Waseem Akhtar, adviser to the Sindh government and leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), admitted … that he had directed the authorities concerned to block Shahra-e-Faisal with containers to stop the rallies on May 12.

And so on the morning of the Chief Justice’s arrival to Karachi Shahra-e-Faisal was hermetically sealed to all approaching traffic from Metropole Hotel all the way to the airport.

Soon after the Chief Justice’s plane landed heavy gunfire pervaded the air near Falak Naz Plaza once again, successfully blockading off the airport from Shahra-e-Faisal.

Then Geo TV began reporting heavy crossfire between the MQM and opposition rallies at most major intersections of Shahra-e-Faisal. This piece of news puzzled me greatly. How, I wondered, could the MQM rally which was centred on Bunder Road (also known as M. A. Jinnah Road) stumble upon opposition rallies which were clogged up at the various blockades on Shahra-e-Faisal some three miles away.

Subsequent live pictures from the scene cleared up this initial piece of misreporting. There was no meeting of opposing rallies and no crossfire, instead what we witnessed were dozens of gunmen positioned on the raised bridges and flyovers above Shahra-e-Faisal (at crossing such as Baloch Colony, Rashid Minhas Road, etc) intently engaged in a turkey shoot of opposition party supporters. With their cars and vans all jammed up at the block points on Shahra-e-Faisal there was little room for the hapless victims to find shelter. A massacre ensued.

To the best of my knowledge no MQM supporter is believed to have died near the vicinity of Shahra-e-Faisal. However, it is common knowledge that a handful of MQM people did die on 12 May. It now emerges that these persons were killed that day during a ferocious gun battle west of Bunder Road. Here the MQM gunmen encountered a heavily armed jihadi/MMA mob who took them on bullet for bullet. This should not come as a surprise to anyone as this part of town neighbours the vast Binori Masjid madarassa complex.

For those still unconvinced about MQM’s role in the carnage, I suggest they take a look this video clip available on YouTube.com (‘Real Face of MQM Exposed’) which contradicts their spurious claims of innocence.

It should also be noted that while MQM gunmen were freely wandering around Karachi with their lethal automatic weapons, Sindh’s MQM controlled Home Department ensured that Karachi police remained completely weaponless for that day.

As the Daily Times reported the next day:

KARACHI: Police personnel in Sindh were still weaponless Sunday, one day after Saturday’s bloodbath. The Sindh home department had directed the police departments to take back the weapons of all personnel deployed to control law and order on May 12, sources disclosed to Daily Times. Most of the police were given batons instead. Around 15,000 policemen were deployed to control the situation on Saturday. However, most of the policemen preferred to stay away from the violent areas on May 12 because they had no weapons.

A few hours after being stunned by the scenes of death and destruction in Karachi I was staggered to see a prancing Musharraf raise both his fists in the air and tell a gathered rent-a-crowd in Islamabad ‘Karachi nay aaj hummai’n apnee takat dikhaee’.

``

Amazingly, there are so many pictures available on the net, along with the TV footage and the pictures taken by the journalist (see post #3) and in private hands. But so far there has not been any effort to grab the people who clearly were seen firing randomly. Their faces are visible and they are easily identifiable. Why the Sindh government not putting those pictures on the TV and in Newspapers with some prize on their heads?

With so much identification available, how hard it would be to grab these people to start the process to bring these people to justice.

Musharraf and the MQM...terrorists, murderers, criminals.

MQM is a party that governs through terrorizing people. I wont say much about May 12 but this is not a surprise for me as I was raised in Karachi, spent all my years among loyal MQM workers. The situation has improved a little from what it used to be but the fear of MQM is still felt by anyone living in karachi e.g. Currently on independent channels like GEO, ARY, you can almost criticize any leader in its news reporting openly but not Altaf. Even small things like parody of any politician but not th `Altaf Bhai. You cant even think of doing that. Its the fear ! Ask any journalist in Pakistan and he would think twice before writing anything against MQM and maybe think 10 times before writing anything against `Altaf Bhai` especially if the journalist is living in Karachi. I wonder why this reality is so hard to digest for MQM supporters. Any kid on the streets of karachi knows this.

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#17 Youtube about MQM (the Yazeed butcher) reminds me of Imam Hussain and his family being butchered in Karbala(Karachi) and there was no help for those innocent people.......No help

All help was blocked by another Yazeed butcher(Musharaf)..................tsk,tsk,tsk.......

BAANDER

Baander, means `monkey` - but for some reason, the word monkey does not reflect the full intent and meaning of what the word `baander` does. In my opinion, MQM is the latest victim of the anti-politics military establishment of Pakistan, which works relentlessly to make the politicians and political parties discredited in Pakistan. MQM is the latest baanders in that long list of baanders. Before them were the sirkari Moulvis who signed on the 17th ammendment, Muslim League, and People`s party and countless other riff raff. Now the number of baanders in the political process is far exceeding the number of decent and principled human beings. Meaning, there is no hope.

The creation of MQM by military was in fact an attempt by military establisment to feudalize the biggest urban and civic center of the nation. The attempt was successful. Today Karachi stand just as any other feudal fiefdom as in any other rural part in country, where nothing happens unless feudal lords want it. Karachi is now the same where new MQM feudal establishment has its own revenue collection (bhatta), private jails, torture cells, death squads; police and bureaucracy cannot lift a finger without the approval of the ``feudal lord``. God! what a regression.

So I would welcome all Karachiiites into the fold where the rest of the country is. Bohat uchchla karte they tum log. Who is the monkey now, Paindoos?

Zeena #22,

Zeena Sahiba,
I have requested you several times NOT to ridicule my religion. Please don`t trivialize the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. If you respect my religion, I promise to reciprocate. Thanks.

That damned brilliant guy who came up with the idea for a simultaneous rally on May 12 should be transferred to the new MQM office in the Rann of Kutch. Everything was going so well for MQM and Urdu-speakers before the tragic day of May 12, 2007:

HijRali1 was ready to join MQM and become its first transvestite member
Chutif2 was changing his Qibla to London
Kulharee Payee was going to admit that Mirza Goo Lame Tahmed never came - not even once, forget being last.
Ass Lame was going to offer her new-found virginity as a sacrifice on Peer Sahib`s altar of inter-ethnic kumbaya
Madame Flatulence was ready to saw off her lower half.
A Lie had sworn to be truthful, honest, and polite
Qumquat was ready to write Urdu poetry and take lessons in proper dickshun.
Chacha Chaar Sau Bees had purchased garlands of flowers to welcome returning Pakis ``stranded`` in BD
Maulana Stuka Singapuri was going to visit Karachi and compare it to Milan
Zeemax was set to receive numerous Lucknavi injections in his most sensitive orifice
BigShoe was going to start wearing Nawabi jootay on his earlobes as ornaments
Charlie was going to give up snails in favor of Bihari kababs
Mantolives was ready to wed three more Urdu-speakers to really impress the JI

But now, everything is off the table. The POPOs are mad and will never accept Mutarwa Raj. They are ready to invite Kaura Singh to take over Punjuland. Damn MQM - and we were so close to having POPOs kissing Mutarwa posteriors five times a day as a form of worship and adulation.

I guess some things were never meant to be. :(

I am posting the UP thread of Echoboom.

(I cant get what Chowk staff does here. Sadna was disabled. So was Echoboom. Though both speak from opposite points of view, they deserve to be heard. On the scale of Ali-1 or Atif2, Echoboom wud look like a saint. Those two guys had unfettered freedom to post gaalis of the highest order, whereas Echoboom posts acceptable language though interspersed with milder gaalis).

N.B: I may or may not agree with Echo`s opinion.

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Started by echoboom on May 31, 2007 6:30am PT

FROM:
Eyewitness: Karachi, May 12, 2007
Beena Sarwar
............
May I suggest that hence onwards the MQM goonda-e-azam be called :

Altaf Thhackray

Would somebody be kind enough to reprint this on my behalf on FP. thanks.

Once this tag becomes ``popular`` Altaf Thhacray would lose his grip...or so I hope.

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Re:#24 Salim mian

Are you in your senses? what`s this?your religion and my religion......and who is ridiculing Imama Hussain?

First of all I myself do not believe in shia and sunni....all are Muslims....
Second, if, I do I am also Shia and sunni (both).......

Third, I am sharing my feelings of extreme sadness on the butcher of those innocent Pakistani Karachiits who got butchered @ the hands of MQM and Musharaf(Yazeed).

Kindly, try NOT to twist my analogy. I am also Shia/sunni Muslim...And Imama Hussain is not your property, he belongs to all Muslims equally.......

And since when it comes under insult to give such analogy for the butcher of innocent people?

When we see such innocent people being butchered in their own country, we always give such analogy and this shows our extreme respect for Imam Hussain...............

Yes, those 48 innocent Pakistani Karachiits were butchered in the streets of Karachi by Yazeed(MQM).............and that`s the fact...You can`t change the facts......

My religion is shia/sunni Muslim...So, what`s the point here?

Anyway, once again Imama Hussain is equally respectable for all Muslims regardless of shia and sunni.......Imama Hussain is not your commodity............He belongs to all of us......


take care
..........................................................................................................

All help was blocked by another Yazeed butcher(Musharaf)..................tsk,tsk,tsk.......

PS:-I will always use any analogy I wish..............I am not abusing anyone....I am expressing my sadness.

And we are not discussing shia and sunni here............please, try to stick to the topic of this article, if, you can......
And do not give me any kinds of threat that you won`t respect my religion.....I never asked you to respect my religion...go ahead disrespect my religion....and my religion is shia/sunni.....

Even,if, you start abusing me, I won`t....b/c I have nothing personal against you or anyone....all of you are strangers for me....

Bye

Re:#23 Urstruly sahib

Excellent!!!

You said it all in a very intelligent way.....

Re: # 26

I agree with your concern. Disabling interactors permanently or for extended period of time like Echoboom and Sadna etc. is unfair and unjustified. I do not think either one of them has violated any so-called chowk policy more than anyone else. Why single them out??

While, it is quite ok to suspend an intercator for couple of days so that they could take their chill-pill and calm their nerves down but this permanent disablement reeks of a political agenda.

Urstruly sahib
No, please they are not bandaars....don`t insult innocent and harmless creatures like bandaars by comparing them to MQM..

MQM(Yazeed butchers) butchered innocent Pakistani Karachiits, just like Imama Hussain and his family was butchered by Yazeed in Karbala......

#26 Folio sahib
Thanks for reminding us about echoboom.....

Chowk staff should unban Echoboom and sadna both....this is not fair.

Urstruly,

Though I dont agree with whatever u write here, u are one of the well behaved Chowkies (unlike Zeemax). Echoboom is a fine guy with clean record, though he jumps with fury at all of us, he`s another nice guy with no record of direct expletives posted here.

Sadna need no certificate from me. She`s a woman with deeper insights into many issues. Even Ali-1 exhorted his Pakistani women not to waste time on tapestries, pastries and ice-fruits and post like Sadna. That`s itself is a veiled compliment.



Xena dahling,

Well said.