MQM insurrection (1978-1992)

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First MQM insurrection
Part of MQM Militancy
Date1972-1992
Location
Karachi and Hyderabad
Result Start of Operation Cleanup
Belligerents

MQM

 Pakistan

Sindh Sindh

JI

STPP

Armed Afghan migrants
Units involved
APSMO  Pakistan Army
SindhSindh Police
SindhSindh Rangers

IJT

STPP

Armed Afghan migrants
Casualties and losses
1000+ killed

In between 1972 and 1992, MQM militants launched multiple attacks against Sindh government and civilians in order to get a stronghold over Karachi. The first insurrection came to end following Operation Cleanup by Pakistan government in order to destroy the MQM stronghold in Karachi.

Background[edit]

The ancestor of the MQM was the All Pakistan Muttahidda Students Organization (APMSO), drew its support from muhajir defectors from the heavily armed Islami Jamiat ut-Taleba(IJT). A large number of Jamaat-i-Islami members who were ethnic Muhajirs shifted their loyalties to the MQM overnight, resulting in the elimination of the former influence of the Jamaat. APMSO was radicalised when in 1985-86 the first (of the many) major clashes took place between Karachi's Muhajir and Pushtun communities.[1] Faced by the superior firepower brought in by Afghan refugees, MQM dispatched a delegation of APMSO members to Hyderabad to meet a militant group from the Sindhi nationalist student organisation, the JSSF. APMSO were given some small firearms by PSF in the early 1980s, but it was JSSF that sold the APMSO its first large cache of AK-47s that were then used to tame the heavily armed IJT in 1987 and 1988, eventually breaking IJT's hold at KU and in various other state-owned campuses in Karachi. Admist ethnic violence, MQM's armed wings used street fighting and urban warfare as ethnic Muhajirs sought to use violence to control governing structures and appointments such as the Karachi Port Trust, Karachi Municipal Corporation and the Karachi Developmental Authority.[2] During the MQM's stint in power in 1991, when it was part of the provincial government of Sindh, the party endorsed and participated in raids and the mass-arrests of its political rivals. Additionally, the MQM, supported by the government, was accused of operating as a mafia organization where its heavily armed militants used extortion and coercion to increase their influence.[3]

Ethnic violence[edit]

The first victims of the MQM in the 1980s were primarily ethnic Pashtuns, who were generally targeted on trivial grounds which the MQM did its best to exacerbate.[4] In 1985, a bus accident led to the death of Bushra Zaidi, by an Azad Kashmiri Punjabi driver,[5][6][7] ignited tensions and resulted in riots in Orangi Town of Karachi. Mobs, especially university students, attacked ethnic Pashtuns and policemen, blaming the ethnic group for car accidents in the city, resulting in the killings of over 100 people.[6][8][9][10] During the riots, the APMSO printed and distributed inflammatory pamphlets against the ethnic group, grounding the city to a halt and shutting down educational institutions.[11]On September 30, 1988,[12] hundreds of people, mostly Muhajirs,[12] were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh in what was known as "Black Friday". The death toll was above 250,[13] and the attacks are said to have been coordinated and carried out by Sindhi nationalist militants.[12] Unidentified gunmen opened fire on large crowds of innocent bystanders, including women and children, in Latifabad. The MQM accused Qadir Magsi and nationalists carrying out the attack.[14]

The following day Sindhis were killed in ethnic rioting which killed at least 46 people.[15] A curfew was enforced in both Karachi and Hyderabad.[16] In total over 200+ people died by MQM retaliation in the span of two days. In 1990, in a response to a police raid on MQM militants which caused the deaths of 60 Muhajirs civilians,[17][18] MQM retaliatory attacks led to the deaths of 130 Sindhis.[19][20]

Extortion[edit]

The MQM's initial source of funding relied on Zakat, voluntary donations from its members. However, in the 1990s, the MQM adopted a new approach called "Bhatta" or forced tax and protection money collection from commercial areas in Karachi. The party also resorted to illegal funding methods such as bank robberies in 1988.[21] The "Bhattia" mafia extorted money from various professionals, including traders, businessmen, bankers, doctors, teachers, construction workers, and religious figures. This illegal funding scheme blurred the lines between politics and crime in Karachi, as some criminal groups transformed into political parties' armed wings.[22][23]

Attacks on journalists[edit]

MQM has allegedly resorted to violence against journalists and media outlets critical of the party's violent activities.[24] Starting from 1991, the MQM engaged in destructive activities against newspapers that criticized them, with members of the group involved in looting and burning down offices. In fact, the management of Herald publications in Karachi had to suspend the distribution of the Dawn newspaper on March 21, 1991, after what it called a week-long "terror campaign" carried out by the MQM which involved abductions, intimidation, and attacks against newspaper vendors, distributors, and hawkers.[25]

Pakka Qila Operation (26, 27 May 1990)[edit]

Operation was launched by Sindh Police to target MQM workers in Pakka Qilla Hyderabad. Over 250 besieged innocent men, women, children was massacred during the operation which carried on for 275 hours before Pakistan army men eventually moved in.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nadeem Paracha (August 23, 2012). "Born to Run: The Rise and Leveling of APMSO".
  2. ^ Michael R. Glass, Phil Williams, Taylor B. Seybolt (January 13, 2022). Urban Violence, Resilience and Security Governance Responses in the Global South. Edward Elgar. p. 146. ISBN 9781800379732.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali (1996). "The Battlefields of Karachi: Ethnicity, Violence and the State". The Journal of the International Institute. 4 (1).
  4. ^ A History of Pakistan and Its Origins. Anthem Press. 2004. ISBN 9781843311492.
  5. ^ Verkaaik, Oskar (2018-06-05). Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18771-6.
  6. ^ a b Tarique Niazi (1997). Ecological Bases of Social Violence in Pakistan. University of Wisconsin--Madison.
  7. ^ Sanaa Alimia (2022). Refugee Cities: How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 42. ISBN 9781512822793.
  8. ^ The Herald. Pakistan Herald Publications. 1995. p. 50.
  9. ^ Clemens Spiess, Mike Enskat, Subrata Kumar Mitra (2004). Political Parties in South Asia. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 181. ISBN 9780275968328. However, after the MQM emerged on the scene, it changed the direction of mohajir politics and decided to join hands with Sindhis in a grand coalition against "outsiders". In 1985, when Bushra Zaidi was crushed under traffic, the mohajir-armed bands attacked the residential colonies of Pathans who were generally identified with the transport sector.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Ashraf Tariq (1999). Panic in Karachi: Altaf Hussain, MQM and Underground Mafia · Part 1. p. 191. In fact , Sarwar Awan's PPI was the ultimate reaction against the open hostilities of MQM on pretext of Bushra Zaidi's mishap . Bushra Zaidi was a student of a college situated at the Rizvia Chowrangi , Nazimabad , Karachi .
  11. ^ Niloufer A. Siddiqui (2022). Under the Gun:Political Parties and Violence in Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 9781009242493.
  12. ^ a b c Oskar Verkaaik. Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan. Princeton University Press. p. 189.
  13. ^ Ethnic Rioting in Karachi Kills 46 and Injures 50 The New York Times, October 2, 1988
  14. ^ "The Black Friday - 30 September 1988 Hyderabad | PDF | Murder | Crime & Violence". Scribd. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  15. ^ Ethnic Rioting in Karachi Kills 46* and Injures 50 The New York Times, October 2, 1988
  16. ^ Verkaaik, Oskar (5 June 2018). Migrants and militants: fun and urban violence in Pakistan. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18771-6. OCLC 1043701861.
  17. ^ Tambiah, Stanley J. (2023-04-28). Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia. University of California Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-520-91819-1. It is significant that on May 27, the police were deployed and ready to deal with the procession in the Fort area and other demonstrations else- where. For example, three jeeps carrying policemen drove at great speed into the Fort procession, making the people give way. And, apparently the women, when challenged to stop, dared the police to open fire, "because we are carrying the Holy Quran on our heads." The police--one policeman is reported to have shouted, "They are prostitutes" did open fire, causing a stampede, the shrieking women and children rushing into the Abdul Wahab Shah Jilani Shrine for shelter and the men running toward Station Road. 24 Ambulances arrived and carried off the dead and the wounded to nearby hospitals, first to Bhitai Hospital-which had only "one small operation theatre," so that the surgeons were obliged to operate in the corridors and then to the St. Elizabeth and Mohammadi hospitals. All these frenzied events were taking place to the deafening noise of voices over the loudspeakers installed in various mosques, screaming, "Come out of your homes, Muhajirs are being killed"; "Please arrange cots and bedding for the injured"; "Rush to the hospitals and donate blood." In response, "volunteers put up shamianas [tents] in the hospital compound, while women queued to donate blood."
  18. ^ Siddiqi, Farhan Hanif (2012). The Politics of Ethnicity in Pakistan: The Baloch, Sindhi and Mohajir Ethnic Movements. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-68614-3.
  19. ^ Ishtiaq Ahmed · (1998). State, Nation and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia. Pinter. p. 204. ISBN 9781855675780.
  20. ^ Yamini Narayanan (19 November 2015). Religion and Urbanism: Reconceptualising sustainable cities for South. Routledge. ISBN 9781317755418. MQM's armed wings got involved in this clash, and did so when it flared again in 1990, in which 130 Sindhis were killed.
  21. ^ Gunaratna, Rohan; Iqbal, Khuram (2019). Pakistan:Terrorism Ground Zero. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781780230092.
  22. ^ Gholam Mujtaba (2018). The Political Ecology of Pakistan. FriesenPress. p. 40. ISBN 9781525534614.
  23. ^ Wennmann, Achim; Jütersonke, Oliver (7 December 2018). Urban Safety and Peacebuilding New Perspectives on Sustaining Peace in the City. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351371346.
  24. ^ Niloufer A. Siddiqui (2022). Under the Gun:Political Parties and Violence in Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009242493.
  25. ^ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives and Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate by the Department of State in Accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as Amended · Volume 1991. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1992. ISBN 9780160373930.
  26. ^ "Hyderabad: MQM's Pucca Qila". DAWN.COM. 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
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