Politics, Karachi Style [blog], The AfPak Channel // Foreign Policy, 22 January 2010
EXCERPT: "The Arabian and Indo-Australian tectonic plates meet near Karachi, the Pakistani port city inhabited by at least 15 million people. But in recent weeks, Karachi has been reeling from violent seismic activity along its ethnic and political fault lines -- not the collision of geological plates nearby. Two days ago, armed Sindhi and Pashtun activists exchanged tit-for-tat murders in the middle class Gulistan-e Jauhar area. Since the start of this year, targeted killings have claimed the lives of over 41 political workers. And in the last six months of 2009, there were 256 political assassinations in the city, according to Pakistan's interior ministry. An uptake in ethnic and political violence in Karachi is cause for concern for the prospects for Pakistan's political stability and national cohesion. Karachi is a microcosm of Pakistan as virtually all of its ethnic groups and power brokers are represented there. Massive civil unrest in Karachi is an indicator of the strength of centrifugal tendencies inside multi-ethnic Pakistan, which has historically been deeply challenged in managing its diversity."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
Four arrested over Pakistan bombings, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 2010
Arrest of Jundullah men linked to Ashura day blast: Nothing but the truth?, Daily Times, 25 January 2010
Violence in the streets of Karachi, The Huffington Post, 4 May 2009
Tense Karachi returns to normal, BBC News, 2 December 2008
Karachi violence stokes renewed ethnic tension, IRIN News, 15 May 2007
Related posts:
Karachi seen as key to Pakistan's future, 22 January 2010
Continued violence in Karachi leads to new casualties, 11 January 2010
Fatal incidents throughout Karachi, 8 January 2010
Karachi's new resolve against Taliban, 7 January 2010
Anti-terrorism act invoked after 256 target killings, 5 January 2010
