Editorial: Restore peace in Lyari

Some strange and dubious elements provoked yet another round of gang war in Lyari that had left more than 20 people killed and many more injured. Hundreds of families are forced to take refuge to safer places in Karachi as the government had failed to restore peace. Some dubious elements in Sindh Government were perturbed when there was peace and tranquility and people were passing a normal life after settling their own disputes.

Those dubious elements in the Sindh government were also responsible for kidnapping and extra judicial killing of Rehman Baloch who was responsible for ending the gang war and restoring peace. Lyari is the only area where those dubious elements could not make any inroad in politics or other anti-social activities and kept them at bay for all just and valid reasons. It was the source of trouble when armed clashes disturbed the peace and a section of the Sindh government termed them as “agents of drug mafia”. A particular section of the establishment was responsible for disturbing peace in Lyari. They had patronized the gangs for war in the past.

It is fact that Lyari is the highly politicized society having no match in any part of the undivided India. Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali along with their mother stayed in Lyari and founded the Ihrarul Islam School for the boys. Besides them, Ghandiji, Quaid-i-Azam, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Senior and Junior Pandit Motilal and Pandit Jahawar Lal Nehru, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Nawab Yusuf Aziz Magsi, Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Zardari were proud to have addressed public meetings in Lyari.

It remained the political constituency of Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari. It is hoped that the residents of Lyari deserves a far better treatment under the Pakistan People’s Party government and the Sindh government should remain impartial and should not take sides with the groups and gangs and restore peace before it looses the constituency sooner or later.

The Sindh government should bring people back to their homes from other parts of Karachi and allow them to pass a peaceful life without any dislocation at the behest of the dubious elements in Sindh politics. Allegiances of people with Sindh and the Sindh leadership and it should not be misunderstood for any reasons. No one can subvert their loyalties to Sindh as their homeland. They will continue to defend the rights of Sindh in a place like Karachi. Otherwise, the Sindhis will be dislodged and completely uprooted if Lyari withdraws its support for any reason.