SPY EYES

Karachi city, which has become a hotbed of all kinds of crimes, besides political rivalry, sectarian killings, gang wars, kidnappings for ransom, acts of terrorism, etc, witnessed the killing of as many as 2,507 people in 2013.

The ongoing operation has clearly not played any significant role in controlling the law and order situation in the mega city.

The data available with the Citizen’s Police Liaison Committee reveals that a total of 2,507 people of the metropolitan city lost their lives in 2013. Out of these 2,507 people, 1,403 were killed during the first six months of the year 2013. The last half of the year also saw the death of as many as 1,104 people. While the government’s operation against the criminals and militants has lowered the casualties during the operation period, it seems the ratio is increasing day by day with the passage of time.

If we look at the month-wise data of the killings in the metropolitan city, it shows a minor decline during the operation period. However, the killing of innocent people continued even when the government carried out an operation against the terrorists and criminals.

The month of December 2013 took away 169 lives, which include common citizens, political parties’ activists and others.

In November 2013, the number of victims was 165. The month of October claimed 133 lives. If we look at the data of violence during this month, then Sindh counted more deaths than the KP and Balochistan combined.

Target killing was one of the major causes of deaths followed by acts of terrorism, militants’ attacks and counter-terrorist operations by security agencies. Despite the ongoing security operation in Karachi, the menace of target killings has still taken its toll in the city.

Similarly, September claimed 137 people’s lives. According to the data, nearly 70% of the people were killed in target killings (106) and the remaining 30% were victims of security operation, sectarian attacks, militants’ attack, gang war, and terrorism. This was the month when the government started a targeted operation in the city to clean up the mafias, terrorists and other criminal elements.

The month of August proved to be the deadliest of 2013 as almost 280 people lost their lives. The data reveals that the highest number of victims of target killings after civilians were political activists and supporters.

July 2013 also swallowed as many as 220 people’s lives and during this month almost 160 people were killed through target killing while majority of them were civilians (98), political activists and supporters while the remaining were killed in other violent incidents.

The first half was as deadly as the second half and the data has not shown any significant improvement in the law and order situation of the mega city.