Deadly retaliation ends Karachi peace
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
A devastating attack in Karachi which left 20 people dead, 120 critically
injured and reduced police buildings to rubble on Thursday was a sharp
demonstration of the capacity of militant fringe groups in Pakistan to
retaliate if antagonized.
In the latest attack, five armed men in a truck carrying about 1,000 kilograms
of explosives opened fire on Sindh police's Criminal Investigation Department's
counter terrorism branch office, whose entrance is secured with two heavyset
iron gates, then rammed their vehicle into the building. The subsequent blast
reduced the CID office, an adjacent police station and all other buildings in
the proximity to rubble. The al-Qaeda-linked Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP -
Pakistani Taliban) claimed responsibility,
while the Federal Interior Minister blamed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for the blast.
A recent humiliating presentation on TV of militants from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a
banned sectarian group and ally of the Taliban, who were allegedly involved in
the targeted murders of Shi'ites, appears to have provoked the attack. It took
place within hours of six alleged militants being presented to court and came
after a period of several months in which no major attacks had occurred in the
city following a ceasefire brokered by security forces with major militant
groups.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the militant breakaway faction of banned anti-Shi'ite
political Party Sep ah-e-Sahaba, has over 30 groups now. Several are affiliated
with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda. Their nature of affiliation with
major group is "on again and off again". When they need refuge they go to North
Waziristan and align themselves with the broader plans of al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. However, when the broader groups adopt the policy of reconciliation
with the security forces, these groups eventually go back to the big cities and
involve in their basic operations of anti-Shi'ite killings and robberies to
make money.
In the complex politics of militancy, fringe militants often stand together
with bigger groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban, only for leaders like
al-Qaeda's Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri to clarify at times the phenomenon by making a
clear distinction between al-Qaeda's and other groups' policies.
Likewise, Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar demonstrated his control over
smaller groups when then Pakistani interior minister interior
Lieutenant-General Moinuddin Haider was sent to Kabul in 2000 to press the
Pakistan-sponsored Taliban regime to hand over wanted Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
criminals living in the Shehr-e-Nau neighborhood of Kabul. Omar told the
minister he would control them in the future - but would not be handing them
over to Islamabad.
The attack on Thursday on the CID office in Karachi's highly secured "red zone"
- home to three five-star hotels, the Chief Minister's House, the Governor's
House, two upscale socialite clubs, the US consulate, CID offices and a housing
for the city's most senior government officers - was a clear demonstration of
their capacity for destruction if fringe militants are played around with in a
wrong way.
"We have at least 200 active members in Karachi who live in different areas and
are fully up in their arms to attack the Muharrum [Shi'ite month of mourning]
procession," an arrested militant interviewed by a local Pakistani channel
said. The six militants were paraded in front of the media on Wednesday as a
display of police successes against the recent sectarian target killings in
Karachi. Earlier, police also showed the arrest of Iqbal Bajauri, a TTP
commander from the Bajaur area who had taken refuge in Karachi.
The arrested militants appeared in court on Thursday morning and were then
brought back to the CID office for remand. It appeared that a group monitored
the movements and meticulously planned the attack. Nonetheless, they failed to
get the release of their fellow militants as the arrested militants were also
injured because of the blast and were then taken to a secure location for
medical treatment and further detention.
"This is the price of arresting 51 high-profile sectarian killers who were
involved in the sectarian target killings," the provincial home minister
Zulfikhar Mirza told reporters at the site of the attack.
The CID police, under the command of Omar Shahid, have succeeded in arresting
more militants than any other law enforcement agency in the country. Many top
fugitive Taliban commanders from Swat, Bajaur, Waziristan were among them,
besides the members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Karachi, the southern port city which is also Pakistan's financial capital, has
seen targetted killings this year along both ethnic and sectarian lines.
Several high-profile Sunni clerics belonging to Ahle-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (a new
name of banned Sepah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) were killed by the Shi'ite militants,
while several Shi'ite professionals like doctors and Syed Raza Haider, a
provincial assembly member representing government coalition partner MQM, have
also been killed.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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