September 14, 2009
The cost of feeding empty stomachs
By Rabia Ali
On the afternoon of September 14, 2009, in the holy month of Ramazan, around 700 women rushed off to a warehouse in Khohri Garden after hearing that a local trader was distributing free ration cards, flour and rice sacks to impoverished people. Little did these women know that the noble act of the philanthropist would lead them to a desperate struggle, ultimately resulting in a deadly stampede.

May 12, 2007
Street injustice
By Zeeshan Azmat
The lawyers movement to restore Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was gaining momentum during the spring of 2007. Chaudhry was to arrive in Karachi on May 12, 2007 to address the lawyers' convention at the Sindh High Court, but the day will forever be remembered for the blatant displays of violence across many parts of the city, claiming the lives of more than 50 people, including political workers and civil right activists.

April 11, 2006
'Nature of blast still unconfirmed'
By Samia Saleem
On April 11, 2006, a religious congregation was targeted for the first time in the history of Karachi: Sunni parties had organised a religious congregation at Nishter Park on the occasion of the birth celebrations of Prophet Muhammad. Around Maghrib prayers, a bomb went off and killed some 60 people instantly and injured more than 100 devotees.

April 9, 2008
Burnt to death!
April 9, 2008 would be remembered in the history of the legal fraternity as the day when 10 citizens and six lawyers, including Altaf Abbasi Advocate, were burnt alive inside Tahir Plaza.

October 18, 2007
Blast victim or missing person?
By Rafay Mahmood
Seventeen-year-old Rizwan Awan went missing on October 18, 2007, the day when Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto returned to the country and formally ended her self-imposed exile. Millions celebrated her arrival, but two explosions ripped through the welcome rally near Karsaz, killing over 150 people and leaving 500 injured. Despite a lapse of over two years, Awan's demise has not been confirmed, nor has he been found alive anywhere in the city.

On December 7, 2003, residents of the calm neighbourhood of Gulshan-e-Akbar in Malir received news that a local tenant and his wife had passed away. The decomposed bodies of the couple, 70-year-old Professor Ghazi Khan Jakhrani and his 65-year-old wife, were recovered from their house, albeit without any marks of torture.

The news was not meant to cause public unrest; the professor and his wife died of starvation.

Jakhrani retired from Jamia Millia Government Degree College in 2000, but ever since, spent much of his time running from pillar to post to get his service documents cleared from different government departments so as to ensure that his pension was duly and timely released. Jakhrani's pension approval was getting delayed because he was seeking the right to pension for his services as a non-gazetted officer before he became a teacher.

Many avoided him, however, because of the nasal cancer that he had contracted, and more so, due to the accompanying pungent smell that would be discharged from his nose. Even after retirement, Jakhrani never stopped coming to college, but his health-related issues seemed to make his presence disagreeable for some of his colleagues.

"He came to college every other day because of pension-related issues," Prof. Mumtaz, one of Jakhrani's colleagues, told Kolachi. "The attitude of some of the staff was not very good. They wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible."

Born and raised in Jacobabad, Jakhrani remained true to his Baloch roots, and refused to be cowed down by such snubs. "The first time I saw him, he was wearing a Mao cap and had come to the faculty room to ask someone to fill out a bank cheque for him," said Ghulam Haider Shah, a library science lecturer at Jamia Millia. "He was unable to write properly because his hands used to shake in old age."

Jakhrani was not known as a sociable man among his neighbours:  he avoided mingling with other men of his locality, while his wife observed Purdah. The couple had no children, and hence, much of Jakhrani's time was spent on his struggle to receive pension. 

His colleagues, however, remembered him as a well-dressed man who never kept close acquaintances. "He was always clad in neat safari suits and was uncompromising on his professional duties. I am sure he never refused to become an invigilator during examinations," Shah said. Even with no obvious friends, Jakhrani would never hesitate in spending money on whosoever approached him for a cup of tea.

 "There are many people in our society who are bent upon taken their lives," wrote Prof Yaseen Sheikh, in an Urdu magazine soon after Jakhrani's unfortunate death. "But he was one person adamant in taking his own life, and that too with such carefulness and quietness that even his neighbours didn't find out."  

In the article which was published in January 2004, Sheikh deliberated at length the complicated personality of Jakhrani, and recalled the time when Jakhrani joined Urdu Arts College in 1973. "His simplicity and innocence had made him an object of fun for his colleagues. It was like people had found a toy to play with," Sheikh said, referring to tendency of society to push away whoever is different from the majority.

"No one knows why he cut himself off from his village and family. He never visited his hometown of Jacobabad... I now think that if he had lived to go back to his village and received all the pension dues, his death would have never came under media spotlight. He would have been buried like any other childless old man, who leaves behind few mourners and more inheritors."

Two years after the article was published, a lawyer from interior Sindh, Haji M. Ismail Memon, asked the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the case.

On May 18, 2006, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and comprising of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Seiyed Saeed Ashhad, passed a landmark order, rebuking all the officials concerned responsible for the delay in issuing pension. Directives were also sent out to government departments and officers to ensure that pension documents of retiring government employees are processed on time, while any negligence was declared criminal.

Memon, however, regrets that the Supreme Court's order was never implemented in letter or spirit. "No action has been taken against the people who were held responsible for the death of Prof. Jakhrani in an inquiry report prepared by Sadiq Hussain Bhatti, the Malir sessions judge."

On May 30, 2005, a terrorist blew himself up at the Madinahtul Ilm Imam Masjid in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, killing five people and injuring several others. Miscreants took advantage of the situation, and triggered riots in certain parts of the city. A dozen vehicles, two petrol pumps and an outlet of international food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was burnt down.As flames engulfed the restaurant, the employees preferred to save the lives of their customers first, and ushered them safely out of the building. In this act of bravado, six valiant employees came under fire. Sources told Kolachi that the air conditioner technicians in the restaurant, Saleem and Ghulam Hassan, security guard Faraz, and a sanitary worker, John Peter, were burnt to death. Two KFC employees, Asif and Illyas, hid themselves in the cold storage.

Hours later, when the police reached the spot, they retrieved four charred bodies and two frozen ones from the debris. -- RA

On the afternoon of September 14, 2009, in the holy month of Ramazan, around 700 women rushed off to a warehouse in Khohri Garden after hearing that a local trader was distributing free ration cards, flour and rice sacks to impoverished people. Little did these women know that the noble act of the philanthropist would lead them to a desperate struggle, ultimately resulting in a deadly stampede.

Around 18 women lost their lives, one of them being Parween's 15-year-old niece, Nausheen, while several others were injured. A resident of Machchar Colony, Parween had come to the warehouse along with her relatives, thinking that Ramazan would pass easily once they get hold of essential items.  "All of us made way to get the essentials items, but who knew that this disaster would befall us, snatching our loved ones from us, and making us shed tears for the rest of our lives," Parween told Kolachi.

Parween said that the stampede took place when some women tried to enter the building through the exit gate, pushing and shoveling one another so as to ensure that they would be the first ones to grab the free sacks. In this struggle, a stampede broke out, women and children were pushed against one another, and eventually, trampled in the narrow staircase of the warehouse. "It was chaos all over the place. Women and children were packed against each other. My own teenage daughter came under attack, and had a neck injury."

Meanwhile, one-by-one, the women lost control, and fell down due to suffocation while the rest wailed and screamed for help. According to eye-witnesses, ambulances reached the spot fifteen minutes after the tragedy took place -- the reason for which was cited as narrow lanes and the huge rush of passersby, who had gathered on the spot. "If the ambulances had reached there on time, many lives would have been saved," Parween claimed.

While a case was registered against the trader, Haji Chaudhry Iftikhar, he was absolved of all charges, albeit with the condition that he pays compensation to the families who lost their loved ones, or were injured. His exoneration was bedded in the fact that he had been conducting this exercise every Ramazan for the past few years, with witnesses claiming that Iftikhar had no hand in this disaster. "Haji Sahib has been conducting this practice since the past 25 years. Every Ramazan, he distributes ration free of cost, but this time, bad luck struck him. He had no ill-intention to cause damage," an eye-witness said.

"Greed had overcome the women present there. If only had there been more tolerance, such an incident wouldn't have taken place. All this is the fault of the government, however, as it has failed to control rising inflation, which has made people run from pillar to post for cheaper packets of rice and flour," Parween lamented.

The lawyers movement to restore Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was gaining momentum during the spring of 2007. Chaudhry was to arrive in Karachi on May 12, 2007 to address the lawyers' convention at the Sindh High Court, but the day will forever be remembered for the blatant displays of violence across many parts of the city, claiming the lives of more than 50 people, including political workers and civil right activists.

The main thoroughfare of Karachi, Sharea Faisal, turned into a battleground on the day, after rival political groups clashed with each other soon after the arrival of Chaudhry at the Karachi Airport. The lawyers had fought because Chaudhry, the then-deposed chief justice, was not allowed to come outside the airport lounge. The then Sindh government did not allow him to enter the city on the premise of the "law-and-order situation," and subsequently, he had to return to Islamabad.

Sharea Faisal, which was to be used by Chaudhry's procession, was made completely inaccessible, and all of its intersections were blocked by large containers, trucks and buses. The tyres of these vehicles were also deflated so as to ensure that they could not be removed from their places. Similarly, the Sindh government had also announced a local holiday a day before the CJP's arrival, while public transport was completely off the road, which left many people stranded at various bus-stops of the city.

Moreover, even ambulances were unable to enter the road, and owing to the situation, they could not reach the spot in time. As a result, the injured and the dead remained abandoned on the streets for hours.

In the presence of 2,000 additional police personnel, political groups openly traded fire with each other on Sharea Faisal, resulting in the deaths of scores of people. At least 34 people were killed and over 140 were injured on Sharea Faisal alone. Civil rights activists claim that the utter failure of the Sindh government and the law-enforcers gave a free hand to political workers, who eventually took charge of the city themselves and dispensed justice as they wished.

The incidents of violence started early that morning, when a man from a religious group was gunned down in Landhi. After the first incident, those who were preparing to receive the CJP were also attacked. In another incident, three policemen and seven other people were wounded in clashes between political workers at Abdullah College, while two other policemen were wounded in SITE in different episodes of violence.

The clashes in front of Drigh Railway Station witnessed the torching of 35 vehicles. During another clash which took place in Kalaboard, Malir, several people, including a driver of an Edhi ambulance, died on the spot. Another clash occurred near the Baloch Colony flyover on Sharea Faisal, with the causality count said to be high.

At least 19 bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), while 70 wounded were taken to the hospital's emergency centre. Some 25 people were said to be critically injured due to bullet wounds, while those who sustained minor injuries were discharged after first aid.

Moreover, five people were sent to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), and two to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), while four dead and 12 wounded were shifted to the Liaquat National Hospital. Two of the injured later succumbed to their injuries. The bodies of two unknown victims were also shifted to Steel Town Hospital.

According to the police, an angry mob ransacked an office of Madadgar Police-15 in Landhi and two petrol pumps on Sharea Faisal.

Following the incidents, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) issued a statement, claiming that 10 of its activists were among those who lost their lives. Similarly, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed that 15 of its workers were killed during the mayhem. Meanwhile, journalists also staged a sit-in at the airport to protest the manhandling during the day, when political workers stopped and attacked them.

Till today, the perpetrators of the May 12 mayhem are on the loose, and no arrests have been made.

On April 11, 2006, a religious congregation was targeted for the first time in the history of Karachi: Sunni parties had organised a religious congregation at Nishter Park on the occasion of the birth celebrations of Prophet Muhammad. Around Maghrib prayers, a bomb went off and killed some 60 people instantly and injured more than 100 devotees.

"The nature of the blast is still unconfirmed, as it remains unclear whether the bomb was a suicide bomb or a planted one," Shakeb Quadri, central executive member of Sunni Tehreek, told Kolachi. Flaying the probe efforts, Quadri said that despite more than four years since the incident took place, the police and other law enforcement bodies have yet to come to a clear conclusion about the nature of the blast.

The incident resulted in the demise of the entire leadership of a Sunni party, as the detonation occurred near the makeshift stage that had been set up for the occasion. The chief of Ahl-e-Sunnat, Haji Hanif Billio, chief of the Sunni Tehreek (Sunni Movement) Iftikhar Bhatti, Sunni Tehreek's senior leaders, Abbass Qadri and Akram Qadri, and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan's leader Hafiz Taqi  were among those who lost their lives.

Widespread violence and riots subsequently broke out in the city, as enraged worshippers and protestors went on a rampage, accusing law enforcement bodies of failing to provide adequate security.  More than 40 vehicles were torched in the wake of the incident, and the city observed a three-day mourning and complete shutdown.

Quadri said that the authorities, upon finding an unrecognized head, had declared the incident as a case of suicide bombing, but later on, a family identified the skull as their son's.

The leadership of the Sunni Tehreek, however, has still not forgotten the incident and is waiting to get some answers from the authorities concerned. "Now as we see an independent judiciary functioning, we will press for further probe and investigations into the matter to get to the roots of the attack," Quadri said. 

"The most important missing detail is that we still don't know why we were attacked," he continued, adding that the number and intensity of such bombings can only be stopped if the "true motives" behind such heinous acts of terrorism are ascertained.

April 9, 2008 would be remembered in the history of the legal fraternity as the day when 10 citizens and six lawyers, including Altaf Abbasi Advocate, were burnt alive inside Tahir Plaza.

Abbasi and four of his visiting litigators became victims of a clash that had taken place earlier that day. Around 2.00pm, a group of lawyers assembled at the City Courts to protest the manhandling of former Sindh chief minister, Arbab Rahim, and former federal minister, Sher Afghan Niazi. A rival group of lawyers also appeared, and started attacking the first group.

During this brawl, unknown motorcyclists took to the streets near the City Courts, and opened fire at several innocent people on Burns Road and adjacent areas. This was followed by rioting outside the premises of the City Courts; the violence during this time frame caused irreparable loss to 10 families, while more than 60 vehicles were set on fire.

By 4pm, the clash seemed to engulf the surroundings of the court. Some unidentified men threw flammable elements on various floors and rooms of Tahir Plaza, a building where chambers of many lawyers existed. According to the then gathered reports, some young men went inside the building and set various rooms on fire. The watchman on duty switched off the electricity circuit in an attempt to stop the fire, but his efforts went in vain.

Initially, there was no smoke seen from the building, and citizens as well as law enforcers did not notice that the building had been set on fire. Later on, when they saw flames and smoke, they called in fire tenders and other rescue operators.

At the time of the incident, several lawyers were in their offices and many of them even escaped. Unfortunately, Altaf Abbasi and his guests were not among the lucky ones. Moreover, the Malir Bar Association building was also set on fire. Similar was the fate of the Jehangir Kothari building, off M.A. Jinnah Road.

Owing to aerial firing across the city, commercial centres were closed, while public transport disappeared from I.I. Chundrigar Road, M.A. Jinnah Road and Saddar. Major markets, such as Jodia Bazaar, Boulton Market, Jamia Cloth Market, Motan Das, Gul Plaza, electronics market in Saddar, and Malir Cantt Bazaar were immediately closed after the news of clash at the City Courts.

A judicial probe into the incident was initiated in August 2008, but till date, no verdict has been given. -- ZA

Seventeen-year-old Rizwan Awan went missing on October 18, 2007, the day when Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto returned to the country and formally ended her self-imposed exile. Millions celebrated her arrival, but two explosions ripped through the welcome rally near Karsaz, killing over 150 people and leaving 500 injured. Despite a lapse of over two years, Awan's demise has not been confirmed, nor has he been found alive anywhere in the city.

"Our mother has lost her senses, but not hope," Farooq Awan, Rizwan's elder brother, told Kolachi. Their family have a strong belief that Rizwan is still alive, because their mother dreams about him every night, where she sees him alive but in a pitiful condition. "We went to a 'Pir' and even he told us that Rizwan was alive, and we should not lose hope and keep searching for him," Farooq told Kolachi.

On October 18, 2007, Rizwan and his brother Arif were travelling on a motorbike ahead of the caravan, while Farooq and his cousin Imran were marching behind Benazir Bhutto's caravan. "I was always into student politics, and my family has always been a key supporter of the PPP. Although my brothers were not active in politics at all, it was the attraction of Benazir Bhutto coming back home after so long that all of us, three brothers and a cousin, went to receive her at the airport. None of us knew that out of four, only two of us will return home."

When the first blast occurred, Farooq lost contact with the rest, and was unconscious for a while. He recovered after the second blast, but when he started searching for his brothers and cousin, he could only find two of them: Arif was alive, but Imran had lost his life as he was closest to the bomb site. "We tried finding Rizwan, but none of us succeeded. We went to Edhi Centre, checked his slippers in the victims area, but to no avail," Farooq told Kolachi.

Next morning, Farooq went to the blast site again, and started looking for any clue (s) regarding his brother. Sniffer dogs from the Army were also summoned; the dogs first smelt his brother's clothes at the family home, and were then taken to the site of the blast. "The dogs ran towards a corner and abruptly stopped. This was surprising for me as well as the Army officials, because the range of sniffer dogs is up to 40 kilometres. According to them, Rizwan had walked up to this certain point, and was then taken away in a vehicle," Farooq said.

This started an entire new wave of uncertainty in Awan's family. Ever since, Farooq has left no stone unturned in finding Rizwan but so far he has been unsuccessful. "I personally went to every possible jail, where people were taken to after the blast, went to every hospital, wrote to every other jail of Pakistan , wrote to the court to take some action regarding missing people, but it all went in vain," Farooq said. "I even contacted people who had come from Punjab in buses, asking them if Rizwan had sat in any of those buses just to be safe, but there were no clues about his whereabouts from there either."

Till today, Farooq has not lost hope and uses different means to find his brother. Every now and then, he changes Rizwan's posters that he had put up in his bedroom, and even goes to Punjab and other areas to seek where he went. During the two years that Rizwan went missing, his mother's mental state has progressively worsened, but she still spends most of her time reciting verses and praying that her son comes home alive. Like her, Farooq is not ready to accept that Rizwan has died, and has pledged to continue looking for him - at least till such time that his death or survival is confirmed.