‘As Karachi’s situation improves,monster of violence recedes in Sindh’

Karachi
Despite the apparent tug-of-war between federal law enforcement agencies and the Sindh government over matters pertaining to jurisdiction, the province which used to attract the fiercest criticism over its propensity for violence seems to be rising to the challenge.
According to a report released by an Islamabad-based security think tank, Sindh is the only province in the country where fatalities from violence have declined sharply during the third quarter of this year.
However, what is even more interesting is that the most peaceful province of the country, Punjab, has traded places with Sindh, the province whose government and law-enforcement agencies, only some months ago, used to be flayed for being unable to curb the rampant violence.
During the third quarter of this year, from July to September, Sindh witnessed a steady and remarkable decline in the rate and prevalence of violence. Moreover, stated the report by Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), some specific forms of violence also decreased drastically or did not surface during this time period.
On the other hand, it was said, Punjab witnessed rising incidents of violence, and thus more number of casualties, from July till September, making it one of the most violent provinces of the country.
“The federal government used to criticise Sindh government for its inability to control security situation in the province,” said Muhammad Nafees, a Karachi-based security analyst who prepared the report for CRSS. “But the rise of violence in Punjab should compel the federal government to focus now on its province.”
However, a detailed study of the report shows that the decrease in violence is not that uniform across the province.
With a total of 321 casualties reported across the province, very few districts in the province were affected by violence out of which except for two, all recorded fatalities in single digits. Interestingly, as violence in Karachi was seen to decrease considerably, no doubt owing to the Rangers-led targeted operation in collaboration with the police department, Sukkur saw a minor increase in violence.
The report stated that violence due to gang war, infighting between militant groups and sectarian killings declined considerably in Karachi.
Moreover, comparative data for the third quarter of 2014 and 2015 also showed a sharp decline in targeted killings, militant attacks and other forms of terrorism.
However, the only form of terrorism which remained unaffected during both years was robbery and random lynching incidents.
Data showed that fatalities belonging to different banned outfits in Sindh went down from 44 in 2014 to 29 in the third quarter of 2015, a reduction of more than 30 percent. The report highlighted this fact as an example of the success of targeted operation in the province.
Another important aspect highlighted by the report was that the overall number of political activists killed declined drastically, the highest number of deceased political activists still belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
During the third quarter of last year, a total of 25 MQM activists were killed in different incidents of violence. However this year the number decreased to only seven, but that too was far more than activists of any other party.