Rangers in Karachi

Advantages and disadvantages of the operation

The performance of the Rangers during the 27 months of operation in Karachi has been a mixed bag. What goes to the credit of the Rangers is that the crime rate has significantly come down in the city and business activities have picked up after considerable improvement in law and order.

For this a heavy price had to be paid in the form of rights violations and encounter killings. From January to April 2015 alone, 584 ‘encounters’ left 234 suspects “including terrorists, abductors and dacoits” shot dead. There have been serious shortcomings too. Serial killers involved in gunning down several traffic police officers, Rangers and army personnel remain untraced. There have also been a number of high profile killings, including that of social activist Sabeen Mahumud and the massacre of 43 Ismailis near Safoora Goth, besides attacks on Shia and Bohra communities.

As Rangers unilaterally extended the sphere of their activities beyond fighting the menace of terrorism as originally conceived, this brought them into conflict with two secular political parties which have been on the hit list of the religious terrorists as well. There is no doubt that the MQM had maintained an armed wing which indulged in extortion and target killing. The PPP too patronised a group of gangsters in Lyari which indulged in crimes of the sort. While the action by Rangers failed to reduce the political hold of these parties in the urban and rural Sindh despite what these parties describe as their media trial, this raised questions about the aim behind the operation in Karachi.

The Rangers need the assent of the provincial government to continue to operate with special powers. The provincial government cannot control Karachi without the Rangers’ support. Both need to understand each others’ point of view and display flexibility. The COAS has said the operation is not against any political party but against the accomplices, sympathisers and financiers of the terrorists. Sindh CM says the operation has to continue. This indicates there is sufficient ground for mutual accommodation