Pakistan Conflict Monitor

Following a "Spate of Targeted Killings", Karachi Begins Crackdown on "Criminal Elements"

Karachi Begins Crackdown on Criminal Elements, Gulf News, 27 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Law enforcers are set to launch a new crackdown in Karachi to round up elements involved in a spate of targeted killings in Pakistan's largest city, officials said. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malek met Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat ul Ebad in Karachi on Sunday and it was resolved to take stern action to curb violence in the country's financial and industrial centre. After a high-level meeting on the law and order situation on Saturday in Karachi, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said 686 people had been killed in the city in various incidents this year. At least 136 of the killings could be classified as targeted, while others were ethnic, sectarian or because of personal rivalries, he told a news conference. He said the government had decided to take 'targeted action' against criminals and gangsters and stressed that it was the collective responsibility of ruling coalition partners to act against those out to destabilise Karachi. [...] The provincial chief minister announced that any citizen providing a video, SMS or any other evidence identifying the executors of a targeted killing would get a reward of Rs5 million (Dh210,000) and the identity of the informer would be kept secret. He said the attack on an office of Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi on Friday night and subsequent killings had been manipulated by those trying to create instability in the country."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Target killings not the only violence: Malik, DAWN, 27 July 2010
Retired SHC judge to head judicial tribunal on target killings, The Express Tribune, 27 July 2010
Ten more killed as violence persists in Karachi, DAWN, 26 July 2010
MQM-ANP slugfest goes public over target killings, The Express Tribune, 24 July 2010
95% of target killings done with 9mm and 30mm bore pistols, The Express Tribune, 13 July 2010

Related posts:
Political meetings in Karachi banned, 16 June 2010
Wave of violence sparks protests across Karachi, 14 June 2010
200 arrested after political killings in Karachi, 20 May 2010
The open city: Social networks and violence in Karachi, 10 March 2010
Targeted killings, ethnic violence plague Karachi, 25 January 2010

Political Meetings in Karachi Banned

Ban on Political Meetings in Pakistani City of Karachi, BBC News, 16 June 2010

EXCERPT: "Authorities have banned public political meetings in the Pakistani city of Karachi after fresh violence this month has left 12 people dead. Most of the dead were victims of drive-by shootings by unidentified gunmen riding on motorcycles. Officials say more than 30 people were killed in violence between rival ethnic groups in the city in May. Much of the violence in June appears to be between extremist members of the Shia and Sunni communities. The government had earlier banned the carrying of arms and pillion-riding on motorcycles, but it appears that the ban is being flouted. The recent killings have led to tensions in several densely populated areas of central Karachi."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Bloody fight over Taliban lifelines, Asia Times Online, 16 June 2010
Foreign hands in Karachi violence, PressTV, 16 June 2010
24 arrested for Karachi killings, 4 more die,  Hindustan Times, 16 June 2010
Karachi target killing toll rises to 5, The Express Tribune, 16 June 2010

Related posts:
Wave of violence sparks protests across Karachi, 14 June 2010
Karachi becomes extremist melting pot, 10 June 2010
Ethnicity, poverty seen as drivers of Karachi violence, 27 May 2010
200 arrested after political killings in Karachi, 20 May 2010
Target killings continue despite added security, 26 April 2010

Gang Warfare Claims Lives in Lyari, Karachi

Lyari Gang Warfare Claims Three More Lives, DAWN, 4 June 2010

EXCERPT: "Three more people, including a 12-year-old boy, lost their lives in Lyari on Thursday as intermittent exchange of fire between rival groups kept the locality in a state of fear for a second consecutive day, police and witnesses said. The deployment of police commandos backed by a paramilitary force in the town served no purpose at least for many Lyariites, who stayed indoors for most part of the day, as the situation remained unchanged in the affected areas of Singhulane, Shah Bukhari Road, Bhitti Road, Kamela Stop, Moulvi Usman Park and Eidolane. With law and order showing no signs of improvement, the 'armed gangs' in dialogue in an attempt to bring back peace to the one of the oldest localities in the city. The fresh wave of gang warfare in Lyari started after an armed group – suspected to be associated with Ghaffar Zikri by the police – attacked an office of the People’s Peace Committee — a lately formed socio-political group enjoying support of influential individuals and groups — in Singhulane and killed its young members."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
"Individuals, not outfits operating in Pakistan", DAWN, 4 June 2010
Seven killed in fresh spell of Lyari gang warfare, DAWN, 2 June 2010

Related posts:
Ethnicity, poverty seen as drivers of Karachi violence, 27 May 2010
The open city: Social networks and violence in Karachi, 10 March 2010
Targeted killings, ethnic violence plague Karachi, 25 January 2010
Karachi seen as key to Pakistan's future, 22 January 2010
Continued violence in karachi leads to new casualties, 11 January 2010

"Mafia" Controls Karachi Water Supply

Karachi "Water Mafia" Leaves Pakistanis Parched and Broke, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 2010

"Corrupt politicians allow businessmen to siphon off as much as 41% of the city's water supply and turn around and sell it at exorbitant rates to residents, generating an estimated $43 million a year. The illegal operations, routinely referred to as mafias, are everywhere. [...] The water tanker mafia's prey can be found in slums like Karachi's Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, where every morning people buy water from the tankers, lug the plastic jugs back to their homes on wooden carts, then come back three or four more times in the afternoon and evening to buy more. A family that makes $100 a month can spend as much as a quarter of that on water, which, elsewhere in Pakistan, costs pennies and flows out of household taps. Water scarcity isn't the cause. Karachi has a steady water supply, and it has the network of pipes to pump ample water into every neighborhood, rich and poor. But Karachi is also a city of opportunists forever on the prowl for under-the-table wealth. As municipal officials look the other way, businessmen illegally tap water mains, and use the makeshift hydrants to supply fleets of tankers that then sell water to businesses, factories and neighborhoods at inflated prices. As many as 272 million gallons a day are siphoned off by the trucks."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Water more profit than life, 15 March 2010
Water sellers set up illegal reservoirs, DAWN, 26 December 2009
Water supply to city cut by half, DAWN, 19 June 2009
Over 390m gallons of water go to waste daily, The Nation, 18 October 2008

Related media:
Water problems in Karachi [video], Karachi Water Partnership and Eckova via YouTube, 24 May 2007

Related posts:
US shifts focus to pakistan's economic, energy and water challenges, 4 March 2010
Militants try to cash in on farmer's water woes, 28 January 2010
Water challenges a "crucial" issue in Central-South Asia, 19 January 2010

Ransom Kidnappings a "Big Business"

Analysis: Kidnapping A Multimillion-Pound Industry In Pakistan, Times Online, 5 March 2010

EXCERPT: "Kidnapping for ransom is big business in Pakistan. Estimates vary but it is thought that dozens of people, including children as young as 4 or 5, are abducted every day by criminal gangs, or by Islamic militants to fund their activities. Last year more than 150 people were kidnapped from Peshawar and taken to militant strongholds in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The relative wealth of expatriates means that they are often targeted while travelling from Islamabad airport to villages in Punjab and Kashmir. The security forces have sometimes been in cahoots with the kidnappers, so trust in the police is low and only a few cases are reported."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Cocaine, kidnapping and the Al-Qaeda cash squeeze, Telegraph, 6 March 2010
Ontario Sikh family fears Pakistani Taliban have kidnapped their son, The Globe and Mail, 5 March 2010
Kidnap globalises as victim profiles broaden, Lloyds, 13 August 2009
Kidnappings spike in Pakistan, The Associated Press via ABC News, 7 June 2009
19 people kidnapped for ransom from Peshawar this month, Daily Times, 28 January 2009
Kidnapping in NWFP and the tribal areas, Pak Institute for Peace Studies, 21 November 2008

Related data:
Anti-kidnapping, Citizens Police Liaison Committee, Pakistan, 2010

Related posts:
Kidnapped Sikh beheaded in Khyber, 22 February 2010
NGO workers kidnapped in Balochistan, 19 February 2010

Report: International Terrorism and Transnational Crime

International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, U.S. Policy, and Considerations for Congress [pdf], Congressional Research Service, 5 January 2010

EXCERPT: "Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company, a 5,000-member criminal syndicate operating mostly in Pakistan, India, and the United Arab Emirates, provides an example of the criminal-terrorism 'fusion' model. The U.S. Department of Treasury designated Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224 in October 2003. In June 2006, President George W. Bush designated him, as well as his D-Company organization, as a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (hereafter 'Kingpin Act'). D-Company is reportedly involved in several criminal activities, including extortion, smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and contract killing. . . Ibrahim moved his organization’s headquarters to Karachi, Pakistan. There, D-Company is believed to have both deepened its strategic alliance with the ISI and developed links to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), which was designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 2001. During this time period, some say D-Company began to finance LeT’s activities, use its companies to lure recruits to LeT training camps, and give LeT operatives use of its smuggling routes and contacts."

Read the full report [pdf].

Related articles:
India wants its "Osama" back, Asia Times Online, 9 December 2008
US and India see link to militants in Pakistan, The New York Times, 2 December 2008
Behind the terror: The role of organized crime [transcript from radio show], NPR, 4 December 2008

Related posts:
Selective counter-terrorism a "defective strategy": Report, 21 December 2009

Narco-Jihad: Drug Trafficking and Security in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Narco-Jihad: Drug Trafficking and Security in Afghanistan and Pakistan, National Bureau of Asian Research, December 2009

EXCERPT: "This essay explores the interface of Islamic militancy with opium poppy cultivation and the drug trade in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and draws implications for U.S. national security. It analyzes the evolution of the narcotics economy in the region since the late 1960s and the progressive involvement of various state and non-state actors in the economy since then, with particular attention to current Islamist jihadi networks in the region.  The essay also assesses the effectiveness of various counter-narcotics policies, especially since 2001, and evaluates the effectiveness of these policies not only with respect to the narrow goal of narcotics suppression but also with respect to counterinsurgency, counter-terrorism, state-building, and the stabilization of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Read the full report.

Related articles:
Afghan opium fuels "global chaos", BBC News, 21 October 2009
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia to act against drugs, terror, DAWN, 27 June 2009
Official: Pakistan, Afghanistan unable to fight drug trafficking, Tehran Times, 20 May 2009
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran join in drug crackdown, Associated Press in ABC News, 11 March 2009

Related posts:
Pakistan Conflict Monitor Page: Drug Trade