Does Karachi operation need new direction?

ISLAMABAD: The massacre in Karachi on Wednesday reminded us of the horrible Army Public School tragedy. Its seriousness could be judged from the fact that the army chief, General Raheel Sharif, cancelled his important visit to Sri Lanka and rushed to the city. During his last visit he had alerted about a “pattern” in the recent killings in Karachi. Is this incident part of that pattern? If so, who is behind it and how can the civil and military leadership address this most alarming situation?
Some drastic measures are required. But will someone take the responsibility? The captain of the operation is not ready to take responsibility and quit. The terrorist attack on the Ismaili community brought embarrassment to the government and the Prime Minister, weeks after an important visit of the Chinese president and days before international cricket is about to revive with the visit of the Zimbabwean cricket team. The killing of some 45 members of the Ismaili community in a brutal manner will have far reaching implications.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and interior minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan also rushed to Karachi as a strong statement of condemnation came from Prince Karim Aga Khan. If there is “foreign hand” behind this incident what our internal hand is doing.
It is very important to understand Karachi, its dynamics and how terrorists and extremists made this economic hub as their “safest haven.” There are reports of a strong presence of national and international terror groups in Karachi right in the heart of the city. After all, al-Qaeda number 3, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, stayed in a flat at PECHS, but escaped during the raid in 2002 while al-Qaeda number 4, Ramzi bin al-Shaiba was arrested from Defence phase, 11.
However, despite the presence of different terror groups in Karachi, we never had any counter-terror strategy particularly for Karachi. In the last 20 years, successive military and civilian governments could not bring about any major reforms in the police. Even Rangers despite their presence in the city for the last 21 years could not restore normalcy in the city.
Karachi has a few basic problems, which provide easy access to the terror groups. These include, among others, huge population of nearly 25 million; thousands of katchi abadis where some terrorist groups have their base; untrained, highly corrupt and politicised police force; successive incompetent governments and militant wings of different political parties and groups.
When Nawaz Sharif came to power and decided to launch Karachi operation against terrorists, he took all the stakeholders into confidence. The army chief was also present in the meeting, which gave approval to the Karachi Targeted Action. All this came as a result of the Supreme Court order in “Karachi law and order” case in 2011.
It was decided in the meeting that the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, would be the captain and Governor of Sindh, Dr Ishratul Ibad, vice-Captain while the DG, Rangers, Major General Bilal (previously it was General Rizwan Akhtat) as operational commander.
It was also decided that the operation would be across the board and that there will be no political interference in the working of the Rangers and police would be trained to counter terrorist attacks.
Later, Corps Commander, Karachi was asked to look into the operational side and in the last one year, cases of extortion and target killings declined before the operation took somewhat different turn and MQM, which supported the operation, started showing concern on the plea that its workers have been targeted.
In the last four months, many persons allegedly linked with MQM have been arrested including some high profile alleged killers. In one such JIT, MQM was accused of masterminding “Baldia factor fire” in which 250 people were burnt alive. This was followed by Saulat Mirza’s video.
Right or wrong but it suddenly changed the perception about the operation and most of the people arrested for alleged involvement in terrorist attacks belonged to MQM, but the party denied involvement in such activities.
During all this period a new trend of terrorism emerged with the killing of a human rights activist Sabeen Mahmood and a university professor. It was followed by the killings of some ranking officers. In between some members of the Bhori community were also targeted, which surprised many intelligence officials.
It was at this point that the army chief’s unusual statement came in which he said about the “pattern” in the recent killings.
Following his statement the army’s top brass came out with a strong statement about the alleged involvement of India’s RAW.
With the latest attack, one of the worst since the launch of Karachi Targeted Action, the Ismaili community members came under attack in a well-planned ambush on their bus, killing 47 and injuring 16. Thus, the target killings of teachers, lawyers, doctors and rights activists continued, causing grave concern in the country.
Karachi needs a new captain, if not a fresh team. It is better if the Pakistan Peoples Party and its leadership take a decision about its Sindh government before someone else does so. Is it not strange that for the last one year, Ch. Nisar Ali Khan has rarely spoken to the captain of the operation - Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
There are also differences between the province and the center over the modalities of the operation. So, let us see what new measures civil and military leadership takes or do we need another tragedy to wake us up?
The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang.