[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 44 (Thursday, March 9, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E568-E569]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    MURDER OF TWO AMERICAN DIPLOMATS IN PAKISTAN LATEST EXAMPLE OF 
                         LAWLESSNESS IN KARACHI

                                 ______


                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, March 9, 1995
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I call to the attention of my colleagues an 
article in today's Washington Times entitled ``Blood on Karachi Streets 
Flows From Multiple Feuds.'' The article, written by John Stackhouse, 
discussed how Pakistan's largest city has degenerated into a lawless 
urban battlefield where innocent citizens are killed while the 
government and the police stand by idly. The latest victims of this 
sectarian and religious bloodshed were two American diplomatic 
employees who were brutally murdered yesterday by masked gunmen who 
ambushed their consular van in broad daylight.
  Mr. Speaker, Pakistan for many years has been at the center of 
terrorism. Islamic militants have operated training camps, where young 
men have been trained and violence has been exported to many countries, 
including to India, Egypt, Israel and the United States. Pakistan was 
the country where those accused of the World Trade Center bombings were 
recruited and trained. Pakistan was the country where the terrorist who 
killed five people in front of the CIA fled to. Now, Pakistan has shown 
that it cannot protect U.S. diplomatic personnel on their way to work 
in that nation's largest city.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to read the Washington Times 
article. It provides an excellent summary of the reasons behind 
Karachi's fall into the abyss of lawlessness, violence and terrorism.
  I join with all my colleagues in this body, and all Americans, in 
expressing my deepest sympathies to the families of our diplomats who 
served their country with great distinction and courage.
Blood on Karachi Streets Flows From Multiple Feuds Politics, Religion, 
                        Ethnicity Fuel Violence

                          (By John Stackhouse)

       Karachi, Pakistan--With martyrs, guns and killing sprees, 
     Karachi is no longer simply Pakistan's biggest city and 
     commercial capital. It is a city at war.
       The two American diplomatic workers gunned down yesterday 
     were among 164 persons killed in Karachi in the past month in 
     a spiral of violence that is a complex swirl of political, 
     religious, ethnic and criminal currents.
       A recent attack on two mosques has pitted the city's 
     Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim sects against each other. Most of 
     the fighting, however, has been between the two main factions 
     of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement, Karachi's leading political 
     force, which represents Urdu-speaking migrants, or 
     ``muhajirs,'' originally from India.
       Many fear that if the two battles--one sectarian, the other 
     ethnic--overlap, Karachi will slide toward anarchy.
       Already mosques, normally symbols of peace and security, 
     are bolted shut with steel doors, opened only long enough for 
     worshipers to pass weapons checks. At night, the streets have 
     mere trickles of traffic. Many residents are even talking of 
     not celebrating the coming Muslim festival of Eid.
       Day after day, in a city once renowned for its seaside 
     tranquility and cosmopolitan night life, the killings 
     continue, each seeming to set a new standard for 
     senselessness.
       In December, seven artisans were shot dead in their shop as 
     they crafted lacework. The same month, on one of Karachi's 
     main roads, seven persons were burned to death in a bus in 
     the early evening. Last week, a passing motorist sprayed 
     bullets in a tailor's shop, killing three persons.
       Much of the city's crisis has been laid at the feet of 
     Karachi's police force, which has been both ineffectual and, 
     in some places, linked to criminal gangs.
       Although the army ruled the streets of Karachi from 1992 to 
     1994 in a special operation against urban violence, it pulled 
     out in December--and 437 persons have been killed since.
       ``I would advise the government to go to the extent of 
     disarming the police,'' said Nizam Haji, a local businessman 
     who heads a liaison committee between police and civilians. 
     ``The police have gone rotten in Karachi. Totally corrupt, 
     incompetent and politicized.''
       Last month, gunmen opened fire on a crowd across the street 
     from one of Karachi's main police stations, killing 11. 
     Despite several police near the scene, no one fired at the 
     assailants or gave chase. Nor have there been any arrests for 
     the attack, although five police officers were charged with 
     dereliction of duty.
       With little law and no order, drug lords and criminal gangs 
     also have taken to Karachi's streets, launching robberies, 
     extortion and retribution killings.
       In Pakistan's most international city, the rise of 
     sectarian violence has raised concern about foreign 
     involvement, perhaps even proxy battles.
       Sherry Rheman, managing editor of the Herald, Pakistan's 
     leading newsmagazine, said that Shi'ite factions in the city 
     appear to be backed by Iran, while Sunni gunmen receive 
     money, weapons and training from Saudi Arabia.
       There also are concerns that official agencies, perhaps the 
     government itself, has sponsored the terror. Many observers 
     believe the army, during its rule in Karachi, armed and 
     trained a new muhajir faction to launch a fratricidal war 
     among the migrant population.
       The new faction is now seen to be supported by the 
     country's infamous intelligence agencies, the same bodies 
     that backed the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s.
       For any Pakistani government, support of the muhajirs is a 
     key to political survival. With about half of Karachi's 10 
     million people, they hold sway over the country's biggest 
     economic center, as well as the influential southern province 
     of Sindh.
       Despite their numbers, though, the muhajirs feel they are 
     marginalized by Sindh's powerful rural elite, which includes 
     the Bhutto family.
       ``These 2 percent of the population control 98 percent of 
     the country,'' said Shoaib Bokhari, a muhajir member of the 
     Sindh assembly.
       Mr. Bokhari did not deny the muhajir ambition for a new 
     province of Karachi. The city now is administered by the 
     Sindh government, and while the federal government relies 
     heavily on Karachi and its port for tax revenue, it spends 
     little on the thriving commercial center.
       The Sindh government also keeps 15 percent of Karachi's 
     property tax, the city's main source of revenue, as a service 
     charge for collecting it. And the province reserves the 
     majority of government jobs, on a quota system, for rural 
     Sindhis, who tend to be less educated than the muhajirs.
       [[Page E569]] While the muhajirs once controlled Karachi's 
     city council, their government was dismissed in 1992. The 
     party's top officials either were arrested or went 
     underground, and the muhajir leader fled to London, where he 
     lives in self-exile.
       When the army withdrew from Karachi in December, Prime 
     Minister Benazir Bhutto appointed her helicopter pilot as 
     city administrator and stacked the rest of the city council 
     with members of her Pakistan People's Party.
     

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