The 5/12 Massacre

For the past few days I have been writing quite openly on Karachi Metroblogs about the carnage served up by on the fateful day of 12th May 2007. The more I logically try to reason what happened I continue to fall deeper into the corner of laying the blame squarely on Musharraf who used MQM to serve him with a decent body count.

The minute the rallies started heading towards the airport a volley of gun fire was let loose from high well placed vantage points upon the people below. The participants of these rallies ran for cover but little can you do with sniper fire. It was literally a nightmare and it would be best if you were to read one of my posts which I wrote on Karachi Metroblogs immediately after I returned home ‘Karachi Witnesses an Organized Massacre‘ where I was simply fuming and blaming the ruling party for everything. If they honestly wanted to prevent the opposition from approaching the airport they could have easily deployed a large police and ranger contingent and told them to tear gas the hell out of the crowd, they could have enforced a Section 144 throughout the city (at least in the areas of Shahrai Faisal if the rest of the town was needed for MQM rallies) and could have used rubber bullets to pacify the aggressive activists or even an occasional lathi charge to give it a Karachi twist. But surprisingly nothing of this sort was used, no tear gas, no 144, no latthi charge, no rubber bullets, no calling in of the rangers to cordon off the city, it was quite simply gun fire all around. Can you imagine for a moment that throughout the day NOT A SINGLE TEAR GAS SHELL WAS USED !!!! Remarkable isn’t it.

When in the evening that day we were a witness to a long rambling by President General Pervaiz Musharraf, it suddenly dawned on me that this was all part of a greater plan and yet again I wrote another post on Karachi Metroblogs titled 5/12 in this post I think I have nailed it on the head when I stated

Karachi was used and the dead were simply pawns in the game of wits. Many have accused the CJP for allegedly politicizing the judicial crisis but I blame Musharraf for using Karachi as a chopping block for his grapple for power

Musharraf needed something substantial to tack onto the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as the lame accusation of ‘Politicizing the Judicial Process’ was loosing its impact, what better accusation then a huge body count to shove in his face. Karachi was simply used as a chopping block, the administration was told to serve up a decent body count and MQM was more then happy to oblige

I thought I was finished with all off my share of Government bashing series of articles but I simply could not hold back when Cyril highlighted a particular comment which appeared on Karachi Metroblog. It makes me cry but at the same time shudder at what could happen if the ‘ruling gods’ go on a rampage. I shudder and also worry for my safety, but at the same time feel that it must be done for the sake of Karachi and Pakistan simply said the truth must be told

A comment was posted by a certain individual calling himself SJ responding to a discussion on Karachi Metroblog, honestly it had nothing to do with the discussion in progress and I assume it was the only place he could find in his eagerness to raise his voice.

Enough said, I leave you with this story of a doctor who chooses to remain anonymous for the sake of his dear life, but had the courage to speak up and luckily posted it on KMB. I honestly fear for his safety, but at the same time I feel that since he showed courage to post it on our blog it should not go unnoticed and it should be projected to the world as an example of what just happened in the short span of six hours that the administration decided to call off the police and leave it unattended in the hands of ruthless killers.

The brave doctor posted this from his mobile set so you would have to definitely forgive his typographical errors, read it fully and then think about what just happened to Karachi on the 12th of May. Massacre seems to be a very light term to describe the ruthless killing that took place in six brief hours

I am a doctor. I work at a tertiary care, govt run, large and very well known hospital in khi. Forgive the short hnd style of typing here. I am, and hav been here at work for more than 32 hrs, and am surfing/typing on my cellphone. I rode with my ambulance drivers, was in the hastily set up emergency room in our lobby, attended multiple gunshot wounds victims etc. but nothing struck down my soul more than what 9 fully armed workers of MQM alongwith 2 sector office bearers did.

They tried to drag out the wounded and dying body of a Sunni Tehrik worker (we later learnt he was sunni tehrik) for presumably finishing him off. Whn my junior residents said we could not allow that, they slapped my junior, dragged us both by our legs to the back of the gurney alley and with shotguns, pistols and ak-47’s in hand, ran in to our lobby presumably attempting to search whr the man in question was being treated. I ran out to the rangers and police a.s.i. some distance frm our front gate who when approached by myself said, and i quote ‘jaante ho inn logoun ko phir bhi kyon larta ho…hamain upar se order hai ke inn ko 4 baje tak karne do jo karna hai. 4 baje ke baad kuch dekhainge’.

I recognized the sector office bearers of the MQM, bcoz I have made the mistake of voting for the MQM in the past. I called a friend in Bohrapir, who is related to Farooq Sattar. 5 mins later the sector charges recieved a call on their cell, and they left, one with a bandana threatening me with ‘naam dekh liya hai tera. Koi shor sharaba karne ki zururat nahi hai baad main warna samajh ja kya hoga’. He also took my junior residnts mobile fone saying ‘chikna set hai’. The guy they had come looking for had been shot one more time in the head. The o.t dress we had dressed him in 10 mins earlier was freshly bloody.

I curse myself for all times i hav defended these people in discussions with friends. Bcoz i like many othrs made up my mind based on hearsay and wht familial and traditional biases i grew up with, without being exposed to their reality. Dont misunderstand me. The JI, JUP, pml, ppp, Sunni this and Shia tht, all othr parties may b infinitely worse. I m just saying tht all of us need to understand tht an argument should take place for one reason alone. To compel or b compelled. Whn we hav the logic and conviction to do the former or the sense and courage for the latter, we will stop seeing wht we witnessed in our city today. – unedited version

Please have Mercy on us all

A slightly altered and shorter version has been published on Karachi Metroblogs titled ‘Is this What Happened?‘