After 3 days of mourning (read violence), Karachi is struggling to get back to usual life.

Coming to work today morning, I noticed the traffic to be scarce for a Monday morning. There were no traffic jams, most of the petrol pumps along the way from Gulshan to I.I Chundrigar Road were still closed, and there was hardly any public transport.

Although schools are out, which means lesser traffic anyways, the attendance at offices is also low, with people arriving late after checking out the road conditions.

Some petrol pumps that are open have a huge waiting line even for petrol, and there was quite a number of people waiting on bus stops. The buses that were, were laden to the top with passengers.

Hopefully things will be back to normal by mid-day as more fuel stations open and people are reassured by their colleagues about the state of the city.

Credit for this version of Graffiti Karachi goes out to Asim Butt who has ventured out in these three tense days to send out a strong message to everyone. All this must STOP

Great Work Asim !!!

Images of the past three days in Karachi found on Deadpan Thoughts

More images at Deadpan Thoughts

Finally I manged to see my husband after two days being stuck at my mothers place. We were shopping @ Dolmen mall, Tariq road when my cousin came rushing and asked us to leave immediately.
Since we left early we managed to reach till Civic Centre’s flyover safely. But then, there’s where the chaos started.As I saw people panic, I noted these lines down on my PDA

“Fire and bullets (the sound) and smoke is what I see all around. We are stuck fires on our back and fire in our front. This is the view from gulshan iqbals flyover.”
“mobile phone networks are jammed and I’m in car with a two year old kid who’s allergic to smoke and my mother and bhabi. When firing started I could sense the panic in the ceased cars.one of the pessangers in the bus stopped adjacent to our car recited Quranic verses.
Petrol pumps, eatouts and medical stores(time medico and murad) are closed.”
My niece by then was coughing badly as the smoke cloud was engulfing the cars that were at cease. The driver had turned off the cars engine to save fuel. We thought of walking on foot to the Hassan Square Appartments, which were just across the road, but then sounds of bullets firing in the vicinity were clear and we ought not to take the risk.

Leaving the car was also not a good idea as we could witness what was going on with the left ones.
There’s no u-turn on that road. The bike riders picked up the bikes and crossed the island whereas the Bus drivers asked the passangers to walk on foot.

Our car was in the right most lane and the first car that I saw being ignited was infront of Civic Centre, the road that goes towards Askari Park, the old Sabzi mandi. It was a group of four to five young men. After liting the car one of the guys picked up the klashenkov. (Some of the guys witnessing the scene with me exclaimed klashenkov, and hence I came to know the gun’s name) It was a small car Mehran or Charade or maybe Khyber that had immunition. I don’t remember the colour.

I managed to take some pictures from my PDA which are not very clear.

Finally necessity is the mother if invention the men tried to break the island and when in vain, bricks (envicrete) were kept on both ends and cars were pushed over it by people’s help.
I met this guy helping the stuck cars, who used to be at my university and was an active APMSO worker.Who told me that the ”fellow members” were there to help people!
I felt good for them (not to Mention, this is the first time I’m heard of praising them but good deed is good done by whoever).

We made it to my my mom’s house safely in 15 minutes from there. However my brother got stuck in DHA and reached home @ 2:30 in the protocol of police mobile!
One of ex-servants walked from Gulstane-jauhar and reached our place late.
That was the worst I have seen in last 12 years in Karachi. 12th may was there and 18th October, but Karachi never seemed so haunted.

May the country and country men learn to control grief and anger and may we all be safe. Amen.

I write this as I got home after staying at my in-laws for 2 nights following the BB killing. My wife made a very sensible decision in directing us there as news arrived, as it was the nearest option from work.
(more…)

I’m wondering how many weddings got postponed yesterday. The thought is natural since my own wedding was. I was almost done getting dolled up at a place near Khadda Market when news of BB’s assassination was seen on television. A few minutes after that calls started coming in reporting of rioting at Gizri, the shutters were pulled down almost immediately as Labels next to Cafe Coffee Day was smashed up.

Around this time, my car came to pick me up and was waiting outside when the rioters reached our lane and people started shouting that they were shooting with silencer fitted guns. Everyone waiting for the people inside the salon were quickly taken in and people were told that they could stay for as long as they wanted till they considered it safe to venture out. Most chose to risk it.

We waited till the lane was quiet again and the servants and guards of neighboring houses ventured out to take a look around. By this time we were waiting just inside the side door after deciding to head out to our nearest relatives place. Once we were told it was clear for the moment we got into cars and drove through the back lanes to defense phase 6 with our headlights off as a precaution, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. Worry and tension was thrice what we would probably have felt otherwise because I was all dressed up in my wedding dress and being wrapped up in a shawl isn’t exactly protection. Luckily we were accompanied by another car so that was some reassurance though on hindsight I don’t know how that would have helped had we gotten into trouble.
(more…)

Im hearing of some unconfirmed reports of a large mob attacking the Textile Institute of Pakistan and ransacking the canteen, library, many classrooms, machinery and offices as well.

Many students are trapped inside the hostel building, parts of which have also been ransacked. The mob is still there. Reporst are suggesting there are over 100 students there at the moment.

Apparently the students have spoken to someone at the Rangers and are arranging an escorted escape from the building to end theire ordeal.

Does anyone have updates on this?

While Imtiaz very well described what he went through yesterday, many other KMB authors like Khurram, Farukh, Unaiza, and myself were stuck at various places due to riots and mobs and all that chaos.

I was in office when I heard the news. It was close to 630. That’s when everyone in the office decided to leave anticipating the violence that always erupts in Karachi under such circumstances. I live near Baloch Colony Bridge and work in Nursery area. it takes 10 minutes to get home normally. But yesterday I was still at the ramp of Baloch Colony bridge at 730. When I reached on top of the bridge wanting to make a right turn towards City School PAF Chapter, I found the road blocked and all the cars were making a U-turn back to Sharae Faisal. At the same time I saw people running from that side. I was barely one minute from home but it didn’t seem possible to get there. Next thing I saw was something black thrown on the road. I don’t know if it was a piece of tire or what but it landed pretty close to my car. That’s when I hit the gas and returned on Sharae Faisal. I decided to go back to my office and park my car in the basement of my office building. When I got there I found the service lane blocked. The driver of the car ahead of me got out and removed the obstacles to enter the service lane. So I entered the lane in which my office building is located but found the entrance to its parking closed. I turned my car towards the parking of the building next to my office building and after some honking they opened the gates and I was able to park my car in the basement. Later I found out that mobs were throwing stones at cars and shops that’s why they had closed all the gates and entrances to the building. In all the mean time, I found it next to impossible to contact my family members and inform them about my status. But nevertheless after several attempts I was able to contact them. That was around 8 PM. From then till 1130 I was in that building along with several other office workers and security guards. One man left on his bike but returned after a while on foot, because his bike was snatched from him and torched.

At 1130 I decided to head home on foot, as it was still too risky to drive. I safely made it to the bridge but when I reached the road that goes from under the bridge, I spotted few boys standing there. They were laughing and talking with each other as if they don’t have a care in the world. The bikers and motorists coming from that direction all turned around as soon they saw those boys. The boys burst into laughter looking at that reaction. I don’t know if they were real gangsters or neighborhood boys having fun, but it was certainly not funny.

Anyway, I was observing them from a distance as I myself was not sure about passing them by. That’s when a security guard from KESC office saw me and offered me to come inside the gate. I took refuge in the KESC office for few minutes until the boys were gone after which I resumed my walk towards home. On my way I saw several vehicles burnt and broken.

I was home at midnight.

I would like to thank Raza for reminding me of this brilliant service where simple SMS messages can be used to keep everyone updated of the happenings in Karachi. To get these alerts sent to your cell phones simply sign up for an account on Twitter.com and follow the instructions to activate your cell phone. This is a free service and generally available in Pakistan (with occasional problems on some providers)

Head on over to the Karachi Twitter page – http://twitter.com/Karachi - but if you have any updates please send it to KHI@Bloggers.pk

According to varios news reports, Sindh Rangers have been issued Shoot at Sight orders across the province.

Hopefully this will help scare the miscreants away. Prior to this, the rangers or police were not allowed to kill and were often subejcted to attacks themselves.