Guns, slums, and "Yellow devils": A genealogy of urban conflicts in karachi, Pakistan

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 515-544

  Gayer, Laurent ^a,b  

^a French National Centre for Research   (India)

^b CEIAS   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENEALOGY; MIGRATION; URBAN AREA; URBAN DEVELOPMENT;

AFGHANISTAN; ASIA; EURASIA; KARACHI; PAKISTAN; SIND; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 34247272024     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X06002599     Document Type: Article

References (117)

1. Quoted by M. Naqvi, Mass Transit, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 13.
2. The first known historical reference to Karachi is due to an emissary of Nader Shah, Muzafar Ali Khan, who mentions his stay in the city in his Tuhfat-ul Kirram, written in 1742. Karachi was founded 13 years earlier by a certain Bhojumal, who got its ramparts built by Arabian workers paid in dates imported from Bahreïn and Muscat; cf. S. K. H. Katrak, Karachi: That was the Capital of Sindh, (Lahore, 1963).
3. The notion of «proto-globalization» was coined by world historians "to refer two interacting political and economic developments that became especially prominent between about 1600 and 1800 in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa: The reconfiguration of state systems, and the growth of finance, services and pre-industrial manufacturing" cf. A. G. Hopkins, 'Introduction: Globalization - An Agenda for Historians', in A. G. Hopkins (ed.), Globalization in World History, (London: Pimlico, 2002), p. 5.
4. For a remarkable history of the Sindhi trade diaspora, which played a decisive role in the rise of Karachi, cf. C. Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sindh from Bukhara to Panama, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
5. The slaves sold in Karachi came mostly from East Africa. They were known locally as Sidis (this term designating Africans in general) or Habshis (this term being applied to Abyssinians only). The 3/4th of the 650 Sidis "imported" annually were young girls, who cost between sixty and a hundred rupees. The number of Habshis was more limited, 30 to 40 of them being "imported" annually. The British made this trade illegal in 1839 but it seems to have perpetuated itself for a few more years.
6. Sindhi opium was mostly prepared in the Larkana and Sikharpur area and it generally transited through Diu and Daman, before sailing for China in Portuguese vessels. Opium was brought to Karachi by camel caravans and yearly shipments varied from 80 to 1500 camel loads in the first decades of the nineteenth century; cf. Secretariat Karachi Port Trust, History of Karachi Port, (Karachi, 1980), p. 15.
7. Although the construction of Karachi's port docks started in 1882, it was only completed in 1944.
8. Quoted by Y. Lari and M. S. Lari, The Dual City: Karachi During the Raj, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 91.
9. Ibid, p. 130.
10. S. K. H. Katrak, Karachi, p. 27.
11. Z. A. Nizami, Karachi Through the Centuries, (Karachi: Karachi Development Authority, 198?).
12. 900 000 Mohajirs settled in Karachi between 1947 and 1951; see Laurent Gayer, Les politiques internationales de l'identité: Significations internationales des mobilisations identitaires des Sikhs (Inde) et des Mohajirs (Pakistan), Ph.D Dissertation, (Paris: Sciences Po, 2004), annexure 2.4, p. 839.
13. T. Y. Tan & G. Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia, (London/New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 179.
14. Ibid, p. 181.
15. The Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) was established in 1832 to counter epidemics affecting the city as a whole.
16. T. Y. Tan & G. Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition, p. 181.
17. S. F. D. Ansari, "Partition, Migration and Refugees: Responses to the Arrival of Muhajirs in Sind during 1947-48", in D. A. Low & H. Brasted (eds.), Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence, (Delhi: Sage, 1998).
18. M. Abou-Zahab & O. Roy, Islamic Networks: The Pakistan-Afghan Connection, (London: Hurst, 2003)
19. L. Goodson, The Talibanization of Pakistan, (New York/Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2002).
20. Only the notables, big land owners and merchants lived in the «clean» part of Karachi, east of the old centre, which had much more and much better educational, health and recreational facilities than the "black" part of the city. In this way, "the dominating position of the rulers was reflected in the spatial structure of the city in which separation was a main element; H. Meyerink, "Karachi's growth in historical perspective", in J. W. Schoorl, J. J. van der Linden & K. S. Yap (eds.), Between Basti Dwellers and Bureaucrats: Lessons in Squatter Settlement Upgrading in Karachi, (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983), p. 8.
21. A. Hasan, Understanding Karachi: Planning and Reform for the Future (Karachi: City Press, 1999), Appendix 2, p. 166.
22. Bastis are "spontaneous settlements that came about without official government planning" J.J. Van der Linden, 'The Bastis of Karachi: The Functioning of an Informal Housing System', in J. W. Schoorl, J.J. van der Linden & K. S. Yap (eds.), Between Basti Dwellers and Bureaucrats, p. 43.
23. T. Y. Tan & G. Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition, p. 185.
24. «Katcha» houses are temporary structures made of mud and thatch; in the subcontinent, the notion of «Katcha» has a deeply pejorative connotation, as it implies impurity. «Katcha» housing is opposed to «Katcha» housing, which relates to permanent buildings made of cement.
25. M. Waseem, 'Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan: The case of MQM', The Pakistan Development Review, 35 (4), winter 1996, p. 620
26. S. F. D. Ansari, 'The Movement of Indian Muslims', p. 159.
27. J. V. D. Linden, E. Meijer & P. Nientied, 'Informal Housing in Karachi', in J. V. D. Linden & F. Selier (eds.), Karachi: Migrants, Housing and Housing Policy, (Lahore: Vanguard, 1991), pp. 67-68.
28. S. Tambiah, Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia, (New Delhi: Vistaar, 1996), pp. 84-185.
29. 90% of Karachi's minibuses belonged to policemen; cf. «Traffic in Death,» The Herald (Karachi), May 1985, p. 43.
30. Mohajirs and Pathans each constituted 25% of Orangi's population, the remaining 50% of the population being a mixture of Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchis, Bengalis and Afghan refugees.
31. Karachi has seen anti-Ahmedi riots in the early fifties, anti-Pathan riots in the late 1950s and again in 1965, anti-Ahmedi riots again in 1969-70 and Sindhi-Mohajir riots in 1972-73. However, the ethnic clashes which occurred in the second half of the 1980s in the city were unprecedented in their scale and brutality. Clashes have occurred between Pathans and Biharis in April 1985, October and December 1986, and February and July 1987, and between Mohajirs and Sindhis in May, September, and October 1988, and again in May-June 1990.
32. Approximately 250,000 of the estimated 1.5 million Pathans of Karachi were living in Orangi.
33. Interview, Montreal, 4/04/2000.
34. A. Hussain, 'The Karachi Riots of December 1986: Crisis of State and Civil Society in Pakistan', in V. Das (ed.), Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots and Survivors in South Asia, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 188.
35. Traffic in Death', The Herald, May 1985, p. 44.
36. J. J. Richards, Mohajir Subnationalism and the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in Sindh Province, Pakistan, Ph.D dissertation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1993).
37. A. Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 28.
38. S. Tambiah, Leveling Crowds, p. 188.
39. Ibid., p. 186.
40. A. Hasan, 'A Generation Comes of Age', The Herald, October 1987, pp. 52-53.
41. Ibid, p. 53.
42. The foundation of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) was announced by Altaf Hussain, Azim Tariq, Salim Haider, Imran Farooq and a few other activists on October 18, 1978. Altaf Hussain's and Azim Tariq's political activities led to their expulsion from Karachi University in 1980. Altaf then left for Chicago, where he worked as a taxi driver before returning to Karachi in 1984, after his comrades announced the foundation of the MQM.
43. On October 31, 1986, while addressing his supporters in Hyderabad, Altaf Hussain advised Mohajirs to sell their luxury goods to buy kalashnikovs.
44. Interview, Oldham (GB), 16/02/2002.
45. Interview with Qamal Mansoor, Karachi, 14/04/2001.
46. O. Verkaaik, 'A People of Migrants: Ethnicity, State and Religion in Karachi', Comparative Asian Studies, no 15, (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1994), pp. 10-23.
47. Husain Haqqani was an IJT activist who later became Nawaz Sharif's councillor; cf. J. J. Richards, Mohajir Subnationalism, p. 249.
48. 'The Campus Mafias', The Herald, October 1988, pp. 52-65.
49. O. Verkaaik, Inside the Citadel: Fun, Violence and Religious Nationalism in Hyderabad, Pakistan, Ph.D dissertation, (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 1999), p. 151.
50. G. Hasnain, 'For Us, Altaf Hussain Was Like a God: The Diary of a Former MQM Militant', Newsline (Karachi), May 1997, p. 33.
51. M. Anif, 'The Gun-Runners of Karachi', Newsline, October 1989, p. 23.
52. E. Picard, 'Liban, la matrice historique', in François Jean, Jean-Christophe Rufin (eds.), Economie des guerres civiles, (Paris: Hachette, 1996), p. 92.
53. M. Anif, 'The Gun-Runners of Karachi', Newsline, October 1989, p. 22.
54. Quoted by ibid, p. 23.
55. Ibid, p. 22.
56. R. Yusufzai, 'The Frontier Connection', Newsline, October 1989, p. 26. In March 2001, an AK-47 sold for 10,000 rs. in Karachi.
57. Ibid, p. 26.
58. On the contribution of ultra-violence to the construction of a Mohajir identity in Hyderabad, see O. Verkaaik, Inside the Citadel.
59. B. K. Axel, The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora", (London/Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), p. 31.
60. Quoted in 'The Anatomy of Violence', Newsline, October 1989, p. 15.
61. «French beach» is a private beach a few miles away from Karachi, where the sons and daughters of rich and mighty Karachiites organize parties on week-ends; in Pakistan, a "rave" usually means "a thumping party with pounding music and not necessarily a substance fuelled all nighter" 'Having a Raving Good Time', The Friday Times (Lahore), February 7-13, 2003.
62. J. J. Richards, Mohajir Subnationalism.
63. The MQM only got 29,5% of the votes in the city but it was attributed 46.6% of the councilor seats at the Karachi Municipal Corporation.
64. J. J. Richards, Mohajir Subnationalism, p. 346.
65. D. Pécaut, 'De la banalité de la violence à la terreur', Cultures & Conflits, no 24-25, Winter 1995, p. 162, where the author suggests that by offering armed protection to the residents of their zones of influence, militias contribute to the fragmentation of urban space and to «the transformation of territory into a patchwork of microterritories.»
66. An English version of this paper was published in K. Koonings & D. Krujit (eds.), Societies of Fear: The Legacy of War, Violence and Terror in Latin America, (London: Zed Books, 1999).
67. 'The Anatomy of Violence', pp. 17-18.
68. A. Mouzoune, Les transformations du paysage spatio-communautaire de Beyrouth, 1975-1996, (Paris: Publisud, 1999), p. 108.
69. Hannah Arendt, Condition de l'homme moderne [The Human Condition], (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1983), p. 92.
70. M. Hanif, 'Cry, my Karachi', Newsline, March 1995, p. 19.
71. 'The Hong Kong Factor', The Herald Annual, January 1995, pp. 58-59.
72. At the end of the 1990s, Karachi was still generating 25 % of state revenues and 23.2 % of the GNP. 33 % of the country's activities in the industrial sector were taking place in the city, as well as 61.6 % of the activities in the banking sector and 37.6 % of the activities in the tertiary sector. The income per inhabitant is the highest in the country; in 1997, at 900 dollars, it was more than twice the amount of the GNP per inhabitant. Half the vehicles registered in the country belong to Karachiites, who also possess 35 % of the country's televisions;
73. see M. Boivin, 'Karachi et ses territoires en conflits: Pour une relecture de la question communautaire', Hérodote, no 101, 2001, p. 186.
74. In face-to-face interviews, MQM leaders are often more outspoken; an American diplomat who met unofficially with Altaf Hussain in London was even told that Karachi might separate from Sindh in the future, following Singapore's example; interview at the American consulate in Karachi, April 2001.
75. Interview with an MQM member exiled in America, Washington D. C., 25/04/ 2000.
76. Interview with Tariq Meer, Joint Chief Organiser of the MQM UK & Europe, London, 21/07/1999.
77. B. Anderson, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World, (London: Verso, 1998).
78. Interview with Samin Ahmad, Montreal, 4/04/2000.
79. Muhammad Anwar, who was at that time the Joint-Chief Organiser for the MQM UK & Europe.
80. In July 2001, Imran Farooq told me that he never left Karachi during these seven years; he also told me that a few weeks before the rebellion, he had finally received the fake British visa he had been waiting for and that it was merely a "coincidence" if he had reappeared in London at a time when his colleagues were "very upset". His arguments obviously failed to convince me.
81. Interview with Farooq Sattar, Karachi, 20/02/2005.
82. H. Mansoor, 'Has MQM struck a deal with the government?', The Friday Times, August 30-September 5, 2002, p. 4.
83. Interview with Farooq Sattar, Karachi, 20/02/2005.
84. Karachi is the financial capital of Pakistan and it concentrates 50 % of the bank assets in the country; all the major Pakistani banks have their head office in the city and most foreign banks operating in Pakistan have set up their main branch here as well. The development of Karachi's banking sector predates independence; in the 1860s, several banks started operating in the city, such as the Agra and Masterman Bank, the Agra and United Service Bank and the Oriental Cooperation Bank. The Bank of Kurrachee was founded in 1861 and several other banks opened branches in the city in the following years, such as the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, the Sindh, Punjab and Delhi Ltd. and the Bank of Bombay.
85. The Dar-ul Uloom Islamia Binori has 8000 students from all around the world. In Sindh at large, 20 madrassas and 30 "Model Schools" (as defined by the Education Department after madrassas were accused to be training jihadis) would be run by the Jama'at-ud Dawa (the parent organization of the Lashkar-e Taiba). In Karachi, the JuD's bastion is the Ahl-e Hadith Jamiat al-Darshat-ul-Islamia university.
86. The foundation of this jihadist organization, which is organically linked to the sectarian Sipah-e Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was announced by Masood Azhar at the Masjid-e Falal, in Karachi, on 3 February 2000. Masood Azhar is a former student of the Dar-ul Uloom Islamia Binori where he taught before joining the jihadis in East Africa and later in Kashmir. Two other "Binory Town" professors played a key role in the foundation of the JeM: Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai and Maulana Yusuf Ludhyanvi (the latter was the commander-in-chief of the Sipah-e Shahaba Pakistan in Karachi). In May 2000, both of them left for Afghanistan, where they tried to convince the Taliban to extradite Ussama Bin Laden. On May 18, 2000, two days after his return from Afghanistan, Ludhyanvi was assassinated in Karachi. Nizamuddin Shamzai was also murdered in Karachi in May 2004.
87. 4000 people have been killed in terrorist-related violence in Karachi since 1994, but "only" a few hundreds have fallen to the bullets of sectarian terrorists. Sectarian violence did not affect Karachi until 1994 but claimed 57 lives this year, 98 in 1995, 13 in 1996, 28 in 1997, 8 in 1998, 58 in 2001 and 4 in the first four months of 2002. In 2001 and 2002, sectarian terrorists stopped targeting mosques and imambargahs, which had become heavily guarded, to focus on Shia "professionals" (doctors, lawyers, etc.). However, on February 22, 2003, two men riding a motorbike attacked an imambargah in Rafa-i Aam Society and killed 9 people. On May 07, 2004, 23 people were killed and over 100 injured in a suicide attack on Hyderi mosque; on May 31, 2004, 23 people were killed in a bomb blast at Imambargah Ali Reza. On the presence of sectarian groups in Karachi, see N. S. Ali, 'Doctors Under Fire', Newsline, August 2001
88. M. Ansari, 'Moving Target', Newsline, February 2002
89. N. S. Ali, 'The Jihad Within', Newsline, May 2002.
90. On the events of May, 2004, see 'Bloody May', The Herald, June 2004.
91. In 1995, an agent of the CIA, Gary Durrell, and another of the NSA, Jacqueline Van Landingham, were gunned down in their van on Sharah-i Faisal Road, the city's main artery, which links the airport to the city center. In November 1997, five employees of the Houston-based Union Texas were killed in a similar manner and attacks on foreign targets have multiplied since the beginning of the American "war on terror" on May 8, 2002, 11 French engineers died in a suicide-attack which was the first of its kind in Pakistan; one month later, the American consulate was the target of another kamikaze-attack, which resulted in the death of 15 Pakistanis. In December 2002, the Macedonian consulate was bombed and three Pakistanis with their throats slit were found in the rubble.
92. The last two publications are the new versions of the Jaish-e Mohamed and the Jihad Times, which were banned in February 2002
93. cf. A. Rana, 'Jehad Inc -Back in Business', The Friday Times January 17-23, 2003, p. 5.
94. M. Qureshi is the first Haqiqi candidate to have won a seat in the national assembly. However, he died shortly after his victory and the MQM (A) won his seat back.
95. H. Mansoor, 'MQM Shake-Up Will Test Altaf's Control', The Friday Times, November 15-21, 2002, p. 2.
96. The MMA is a coalition of Sunni and Shia religious parties, which was formed in fall 2002 to contest the first general elections held in Pakistan since General Musharraf's coup.
97. H. Mansoor, 'Karachi Electioneering Becomes Violent', The Friday Times, September 27-October 3, 2002.
98. S. S. Hasan, 'APMSO-IJT Standoff Forebodes Trouble in Local Bodies Elections', The Herald, March 2005.
99. During October 2002 elections, an ST's candidate from NA-249 and his rival MQM candidate, Aamir Liaqat Hussain, have lodged cases against each other for "generating violence and disrupting the campaign" see H. Mansoor, 'Karachi electioneering becomes violent'.
100. H. Mansoor, 'Islamicising Pakistan's Secular Centre', The Friday Times, January 17-23, 2003, p. 3.
101. Ibid.
102. Khan rose to power largely because the MQM boycotted the Local Bodies Elections in 2001. The Jama'at was then able to take eleven of the eighteen constituencies in Karachi.
103. 'MMA Conspiring to Destroy Peace: Altaf', Dawn, internet edition, 18/01/2003.
104. H. Mansoor, 'An Eerie Sense of Déjà Vu', The Friday Times, 24-30/01/2003.
105. M. Ansari, 'Moving Target', Newsline, February 2002.
106. This Barelvi sectarian organization was launched in 1992 by Maulana Saleem Qadri, a 32-year-old Gujarati Mohajir who started his political career as an activist of the APMSO before joining the Dawat-e Islami of Maulana Ilyas Qadri, from which he later disassociated. Saleem Qadri was murdered in May 2001 in the Rasheedabab locality (situated in District West) and in January 2002, the Sunni Tehreek was placed under observation by the Pakistan government.
107. See http://www.mqm.org/English-News/Sep-2001/news010913.htm
108. M. Boivin, 'Karachi et ses territoires en conflit', p. 197.
109. A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina University Press, 1975), p. 366.
110. For O. Verkaaik, Altaf Hussain is "a human icon that absorbs rather than expresses meaning" see Oskar Verkaaik, Inside the Citadel, p. 52.
111. P. Werbner & H. Basu (eds.), Embodying Charisma: Moderniy, Locality and the Performance of Emotion in Sufi Cults, (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 5.
112. On the ambivalence of popular representations of pirs in Pakistan, see L. Werth, "The Saints who Disappeared': Saints of the Wilderness in Pakistani Village Shrines', in ibid, p. 89.
113. As we saw earlier, the rivalry between MQM and religious activists takes roots in "deceived love", which Georg Simmel identified as a major source of conflict; see T. J. Scheff, Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism and War, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994).
114. During October 2002 elections, a member of the Haqiqi election cell, "Javed", was shot dead in Landhi by two armed men on a motorcycle. A week after the elections, an MQM worker, Farooq Sarbazi, was ambushed in Lyari. After it struck a deal with the PML (Q) to form a coalition government in Sindh, the MQM (A) got the sole Haqiqi MPA, Younous Khan, arrested from the premises of the provincial assembly building, and in February 2003, Khalid Bin Waled, a top-rank MQM activist was murdered by "unidentified gunmen".
115. On the Lyari Expressway project, which risks to make hundreds of thousands of people homeless in Karachi, see N. S. Ali, 'Highway to Hell', Newsline, August 2002.
116. On January 28, 2003, the provincial parliamentary leader of the MMA, Maulana Umar Sadiq, announced that the MMA would soon table a motion against the construction of the Lyari Expressway in the Sindh Assembly.
117. M. Abbas, 'The MQM's New Reality', Newsline, November 2002.