For many, Muharram security means you can’t go out

The road was deserted and only a burqa-clad woman, holding in her hand what appeared to be medicines, was allowed to cross the barricade that is used to block the thoroughfare connecting Depot Lines with the city’s main artery, the MA Jinnah Road, and even that after a lengthy period of negotiations with policemen. As she moved on to the empty main road, policemen and Rangers personnel from all directions started shouting and blowing whistles, telling her not to go ahead. She was on her way to the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, but had to turn back.
She was among the hundreds, who were forced to stay away from the four biggest hospitals of the city as a part of the security arrangements for the Muharram processions. An aged woman had died in an apartment located on the first floor of the Naz Plaza, located on the MA Jinnah Road opposite the Nishat Cinema, on Sunday morning.
But her loved ones were unable to hold her funeral until late night as the security forces had not allowed them to go out. Even when they managed to take her body out for her last rites, many of her relatives were unable to attend the funeral as the areas they live in were sealed off by the security forces. The law enforcers had blocked every possible entry and exit point of the MA Jinnah Road, formerly Bunder Road and now named after the country’s founder, using containers, minibuses and water tankers since Saturday evening. According to Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan, 10,000 police personnel along with additional force have been deployed in Karachi to provide security to Muharram processions; 300 streets have been sealed off, and the army is also on high alert in case of any untoward incident.
The deployment of security personnel and sealing off the streets is a common practice during the sensitive days of the month of Muharram, but there are always some entry or exit points from where, after a thorough checking, police allow citizens to pass.
But this time, there are no points that can be used to access the MA Jinnah Road, leaving a large number of people living in several residential plazas along the road and its surrounding streets stranded.
The entire road that is usually hustling and bustling with activity looked abandoned and only kites could be seen flying in the sky and tired-looking, lethargic policemen sat in the shadows of the minibuses used to block the road.
With entire markets, shopping malls, schools and even hospitals shut down, all the roads and streets leading to the MA Jinnah Road are completely blocked since Saturday evening.
“It’s an undeclared curfew in almost every area surrounding the MA Jinnah Road,” said human rights activist Akhtar Baloch.
Baloch said, “According to Rehman Malik, an area of only 500 metres around the procession route was sealed off, but the authorities have actually cordoned off an area of two kilometres around the procession route.”
Due to the three-day security measures, authorities have not only forced business activities to shut down and schools to remain closed, but they have even forced hospitals in these areas to close up.
In many residential plazas, citizens are running out of food and other daily-use commodities.
“There is not a single route from where we can leave the area,” said a female resident of a residential plaza located near the Mobile Market.
This happens every year, she said. “The law enforcers used to allow us to leave to buy groceries, but there is not a single way out this year,” she added.
She said, “They should have informed us earlier that they were going to shut down everything, so we could have arranged for rations to last for three days.”
While the locals agree that security measures are important during Muharram processions due to threats of terrorism, most of them demanded that the government should have made some arrangements for the assistance of those living in the locality.
“They could have opened one exit point, where they could have installed a walkthrough gate and allowed the citizens to pass after scanning them,” said a resident.
According to some reports, several locals were manhandled by police and Rangers personnel when they tried to exit for buying essential food items without having proper security passes.