Karachi violence: Eye-witness accounts
Residents from different areas of Karachi share their accounts with Dawn.com.
Waqar Ahmed, 29-year-old, accountant:
I was on my way home (in North Karachi) after work. People were burning tyres near Al-Asif on U.P. Morh and sporadic firing was going on so I couldn’t take the usual route home and had to wind through the streets and smaller alleys to be able to avoid the kind of chaos on the main roads.
This morning I didn’t want to take my car out and there was also no public transport available so I stayed back. I spoke to some of my colleagues but most of us are not keen on stepping out today.
Rameez Farooqui, software engineer, 25-year-old:
Sporadic firing continued late evening and till late midnight in the Baradari area of North Karachi. I stepped out
toward this shanty town near my block where groups of people were setting tyres on fire and were firing shots. On my way back, both corners of my street were blocked with cars, apparently to block people from entering I’m not sure. But the cars didn’t belong to any of the residents. However, the cars disappeared this morning.
I haven’t been able to make it to work as yet, largely because there is no public transport available and my car has run out of gas. Besides, it is probably wiser to say indoors right now. We don’t know what the reaction to yesterday’s havoc will be like.
Naheed, 29-year-old, beautician:
I live near Anda Morh (North Karachi). I was trying to get back home, a short distance from the beauty salon, but had to literally duck and run through the way as there was too much gunfire and chaos. Groups of people were trying to stop the cars passing on the road and tyres were being burnt. There was a lot of panic. Even right now as we speak I can still hear gunfire but it’s mostly random.
Rehman Khan, 40-year-old, naan-wallah:
My sister and brother live in Ajmer Nagri and I couldn’t get in touch with them. I still haven’t been able to. I don’t know how things will turn out because I know that most of the dead are pashtun-speaking.
Sikander, 26-year-old, banker:
I stayed back at my office (in SITE area) and spent the night here. My house is near Five Star Chowrangi and there was too much going on in and around that area. Many of my colleagues who live toward north also chose to stay back in the office.
Qurat ul ain, 26, reporter:
I saw scarce public transport; very thin traffic; shops in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar were closed. Some of the busiest bus-stops were almost deserted with two to three persons there waiting for buses.
Hina Sharif, 26, student:
As the violence continued overnight, I was told that a few gunmen killed a man in Gulistan-e-Johar near Johar Chorangi. It probably happened somewhere between 8:45pm till 12:00 am, as those were the hours when continuous firing was taking place. One hotel near Perfume Chowk and a shop of carpets was also set ablaze.
A mini-bus driver was killed and another person was injured. We then found out that the bus was set on fire by group of violent people near Haroon Royal City. Roads were almost empty after these incidents and I noticed that cars were speeding past us on the roads as everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get off the streets. I saw people gathered near bus stops but the buses had stopped running by late evening on Wednesday.
I also saw an ambulance rushing past near Continental bakery (Abdullah Heights) where most of the people had shut down theirs shops after this violence escalated. There were a lot of Rangers in my area when I left for work in the morning and my car was stopped for checking as well. But that didn’t alarm us much because it seemed to be routine procedure and things looked a lot more peaceful than the previous night.
Bilal Mazhar, 28, content producer:
Streets of Gurumandir and all adjacent areas became deserted around 9pm as we kept hearing more and more news about ethnic violence in the city. All the shops were forcibly closed down by groups of armed men and then Rangers were deployed on all the main arteries of Jamshed Town. Police seemed to be giving extra attention to Jahangir road which is a prominent division of two ethnic groups.
Jamshed and Sadder town were completely deserted and there appeared to be no traffic. Due to the effective deployment and patrolling of rangers, no incident took place overnight on M.A Jinnah road and things seemed to have simmered down. In fact on my way to office I saw a family who was enjoying themselves on the lush green roundabout near the governor house.
Naeem Hussain, resident of Azizabad:
I was near Zarina Colony when the firing started. It felt like it was coming from everywhere. Instantly everyone around us started saying that the people who were firing were criminals affiliated with land-grabbing mafia. The way I saw it, people knew who the attackers were and who they were targeting. I was trying to leave the area and return to my office or house when I saw that the Rangers were also firing. Just then, one policeman waved me away, saying that I should leave now because a Rangers personel had been shot and the situation was bound to get worse.
Wajahat Nazeer, pick-up truck driver:
I was leaving the office I work for in Federal B. Area on a delivery assignment. Then we got news that there was firing all over New Karachi and in parts of Sohrab Goth. A lot of my colleagues left for home there and then. But I decided to wait and see if things calmed down. Eventually, I couldn’t leave the office until about midnight. Anyone who left before that got caught in bad traffic jams. By the time I was headed home, the streets were somewhat deserted — all the shops and places to eat had been shut. If I didn’t have the truck, I probably wouldn’t have gotten home at all because there was no public transport.
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