The Karachi Catastrophe

[Valin]

Strategy Page:

February 6, 2013:

There is a lot of political violence in Pakistan, especially in the cities. For example, in the last few years there have been over 3,500 terrorism deaths in Sind province. Over 95 percent of these deaths took place in Karachi, the largest city (40 percent of the provincial population) in Sind.

 

Most of these terrorism deaths were about politics, even if Islamic terrorists were often the killers. A major source of terrorism in the world is the widespread custom of political parties maintaining armed auxiliaries to intimidate their opponents and anyone who might vote for their foes. Often these armed supporters are a local criminal gang, which is more interested in cash than politics. Governments sometimes come to their senses and try to shut down some of these gangs. This is difficult to do. It’s especially difficult in Karachi.

 

Karachi is Pakistan's largest city, with 14 million people (eight percent of the nation's population) and producer of a quarter of the GDP. Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, there has been violence between the natives (Sindis, from the surrounding Sind province) and new groups from India (Mohajirs, Indian Moslems forced to flee the religious violence that accompanied the division of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947) and Pushtuns, Baluchis, and other minorities from the Pakistani tribal territories.

 

(Snip)