News PK Lyari back in the limelight for the wrong reasons

Posted By Syed Shoaib Ahmed
News PK Lyari back in the limelight for the wrong reasons

Karachi

It was a bloody day in Lyari, in fact, one of the bloodiest in the neighbourhood’s recent history.

At least 16 people, including women and children, were killed and scores of others wounded, when the locality of Jhat Pat Market in Lyari – an area under the control of Uzair Baloch’s men – was attacked allegedly by their rivals, Baba Ladla’s gangsters.

The attackers were armed with Awan rockets, crackers and hand grenades.

The attack, residents say, could be the result of the pent-up rage of the Baba Ladla gang over the murder of five of its members in Mowach Goth, Baldia town on Monday, believed to be the work of their rivals.

However, some interpret the bloody assault as a violent protest against the killing of Shiraz Zikri, the brother of notorious gangster Ghaffar Zikri, at the hands of the law enforcement agencies on Wednesday morning.

The Zikris recently joined Baba Ladla against Uzair Baloch.

Nevertheless, confusion reigns over the death of Shiraz Zikri, as the law enforcement agencies claim that they killed Fateh Mohammad Zikri, another brother of Ghaffar and not Shiraz Zikri in Wednesday’s encounter.

However, the locals claim that it was indeed Shiraz Zikri who was killed, as Fateh Mohammad, who is disabled and confined to a wheelchair, left the city for Balochistan a month ago after being released on bail.

Witnesses and residents say the Baba Ladla group carried out the Jhat Pat Market attack to target Mullah Nisar, one of Uzair Baloch’s top commanders. Nisar is partially in command of the Jhat Phat Market. The market was filled to brim when the attack took place.

“It’s very unlikely of gangsters to unleash such a gruesome attack at a public place,” said Anwar Baloch, an elder of the community.

Maqbool Khan, another resident, who was caught in the attack, said Ladla’s gang was probably aiming for the pickets where Uzair’s men were sitting. “It happened all of a sudden, and people did not get time to run for cover,” he added.

The locals say that the law enforcement agencies should have announced a curfew in Lyari and dealt with the miscreants once and for all.

“For the past few months, the government, media and even the law enforcement agencies seem uninterested, which eventually led to this disastrous attack,” said Jihand Baloch, whose two daughters have been regularly missing school because of the violence.

The loss of lives in the attack enraged the largely Baloch community of Lyari. Many of them gathered outside the Karachi Press Club and demanded that the government should take notice of the lawlessness in their neighbourhood.

They were also enraged over the “extrajudicial killings” in their area and blamed the provincial government for their plight.

Observers, however, say that the attack has brought Lyari back into the limelight and this time around, the law enforcement agencies would deal with the area’s gangsters with utmost severity.

Hints of a widespread operation in Lyari began to emerge on the same day as at least eight people were gunned down by law enforcement agencies beginning from Wednesday morning till the filing of this report.
BY PK NEWS