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MQM militancy

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Militancy by MQM

MQM militancy refers to militancy in Pakistan associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party.

History

Rise (1978–1992)

Main article: MQM insurrection (1978–1992)

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 1985–1986 the first (of the many) major clashes took place between Karachi's Muhajir and Pushtun communities. 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. Amidst 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. 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.

1992 Operation Cleanup

Main article: Operation Cleanup

In 1990s the Pakistani army and intelligence agencies according to multiple sources were growing increasingly concerned with the MQM's growing influence in urban Sindh, where it had become a de facto parallel government and was becoming more aggressive towards the government in Islamabad. The military high command viewed the MQM's treatment of opponents and journalists with alarm and saw the group as a "state within a state". A turning point came in 1991 when allegedly MQM activists mistreated two army officers in Karachi, leading to the launch of "Operation Cleanup" in May 1992. This operation was aimed to target "terrorist" and "criminal" activities in Sindh, but primarily focused on the MQM. The army claimed to have aimed to cleanse Muhajir neighbourhoods of militias, but in order to avoid charges of targeting a single political party, the army soon handed over the operation to the paramilitary Rangers. The crackdown, which involved a massive deployment of the army, resulted in the movement going underground, the party leader's exile, and a significant change in the MQM's operational strategy. A propaganda campaign was started by the army to label MQM as terrorists. As a result of the operations, while the organizational structure of the MQM were in disarray, its mass support among ethnic Muhajirs increased tremendously. The rise in the support mainly came due to the violent tactics used by the army to curb MQM.

Post-1994 Violence

Main article: MQM insurrection (1994–present)

During the months of May and June in 1994, the MQM carried out a series of attacks following the army's withdrawal. These included car bombings, riots, and secret killings, leading to the deaths of around 750 people, including non-Urdu speakers and other opponents of the MQM. The conflict its most bloodiest in May 1995, when MQM militants resurfaced to the ground, and systematically ambushed government offices, police stations and police patrols using rocket launchers. Although sporadic ethnic and sectarian violence had been a permanent feature of the Karachi landscape since 1980s, the level of organization and intensity of the violence in 1995 was unprecedented. About 300 people were killed in the month of June, the death toll reached 600 deaths in two months and 2,000 deaths in a year attributed to ethnic violence, leading analysts to compare the situation to the Kashmir insurrection which were also taking place in the 1990s. On June 25, 1995, nearly 80 policemen were killed in a five-week long assault by the MQM militants, and a total of 221 security forces were killed over the year, while over 70 police operations killed over 121 "terrorists" believed to be MQM activists or sympathizers. By 1996 it was described as a virtual civil war between the Pakistani security forces and the MQM. In 2002, the MQM assumed office in the provincial government and were elected to the city government in 2006 and 2008, while Karachi newspapers were accusing the MQM of eliminating opponents with impunity. This also involved violent, unchecked land expansion and real estate 'entrepreneurs' who were specualted to be illegally or violently occupying land driven by powerful political patrons in the MQM. Karachi experienced an exceptionally high level of violence in 2011 with some 800 people killed, where the MQM was widely viewed as the perpetrator of targeted killings, out of a total 1800 killings in Karachi.

Militant recruits

MQM armed wing was composed of thousands of criminals, hitmen and university student-origin activists belonging to APMSO. According to ethnographic research conducted by Khan and Gayer, the militant members of the MQM were made up of both professional militants and part-time militants, the latter who carried out violent activities only occasionally. Some of the professional militants were trained in Afghanistan, and the MQM had a separate headquarters known as 'peeli kothi' located in Liaquatabad/Lalukhet, where they planned and organized violent activities. Initially, this location was used as a torture chamber for the party's political opponents, and later, it housed party cadres recruited for violent activities. The Pakistani Rangers alleged that the MQM's military wing had an "elite corps" engaged in torture and murder without the approval or knowledge of the party's leadership. The recruitment process included inspiration from Altaf Hussain and the promise of "career, income, power, respect, leadership, and brotherly love."

Crackdown & Extra judicial killings against MQM

1992-94

From 1992 to 1994, the MQM was the target of the Pakistan Army's Operation Clean-up, The period is regarded as the bloodiest period in Karachi's history, with thousands of MQM workers and supporters killed or gone missing. Although 25 years have passed since the alleged arrest or disappearance of MQM workers, families of the missing people are still hopeful after registering the cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The operation left thousands of Muhajir civilians dead. During the operation clean-up there was growing evidence that the Rangers and police were involved in human rights abuses, including beatings, extortion, disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions of suspected militants in faked encounter killings of Muhajirs. The police and army carried out raids, mass round-ups and siege-and-search operations in pursuit of MQM(A) leaders and militants over the next 30 months, thousands of ordinary MQM supporters and Muhajir were subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial execution, beatings, torture, extortion and other ill-treatment.

1994-96

During tenure of Benazir Bhutto, interior minister General Naseerullah Babar conducted second operation against MQM between 1994 and 1996. On 5 September 1995, 8 MQM supporters were killed and 11 were injured when security forces attacked what the MQM billed as a peaceful protest against abuses by security forces against MQM women workers. Due to serious doubts over credibility of operation due to fake encounters, extra judicial killings and rise of killings in Karachi, Benazir Bhutto's government was dismissed by the then President of Pakistan, Farooq Ahmed Laghari.

Extrajudicial killing of Farooq Dada

On 2 August, Farooq Patni, alias Farooq Dada, and three other MQM workers, Javed Michael, Ghaffar Mada and Hanif Turk, were shot dead by police in an alleged armed "encounter" near the airport when, according to police, they failed to stop and opened fire on the police. Family members, however, claimed that the men had earlier been arrested from their homes. Moreover, another MQM worker, Mohammad Altaf, arrested later on the same day was reportedly identified by Farooq Dada and his three companions when they were brought to Altaf's house by police to help identify him. Witnesses were reported to have seen the four MQM workers at the time of Altaf's arrest; they were at that time reportedly held in shackles.

2015-16 operations

In 2015, a senior policeman, who declined to be named, put the figure of deaths of MQM workers at 1,000, saying a majority of the deaths were extrajudicial killings. Three other serving officials confirmed the assessment. In 2015, the HRCP expressed concern over the rise in extrajudicial killings and lack of transparency about the number of MQM activists picked up or later let off. During Nine Zero raid, MQM worker Waqas Shah was brutally shot down by Ranger's 9mm pistol fire from point blank range. The video evidence released on electronic media confirmed the incident. Farooq Sattar's coordination officer Syed Aftab Ahmed was killed while in the custody of paramilitary forces. Initially the force denied torture and stated that he died of heart attack but it had to accept after social media publicized videos of torture marks on Aftab's body and autopsy report conforming death due to torture. During the raid on Nine Zero, Syed Waqas Ali Shah was shot by rangers, “Don’t misbehave with the women,” were said to be the 25-year-old Shah's last words to Rangers personnel, who according to eye-witnesses accounts were shoving and pushing women protesting outside the MQM headquarters. As a result of operation, MQM claims 67 of its workers have been extra judicially murdered the paramilitary force while 150 are still missing and more than 5,000 are behind bars. The Amnesty International, US state department, United Nations Human rights commission has published several documents highlighting gross human rights violations during the targeted operation against MQM.

See also

References

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