US Assessment of Karachi Violence

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203530 4/22/2009 11:52 09KARACHI138 Consulate Karachi

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INFO RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 0499

RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0271

RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0314

RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1861

RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE PRIORITY 2720

RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR PRIORITY 4603

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RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03KARACHI 000138


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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019

TAGS: PTER, ASEC, PGOV, PK

SUBJECT: SINDH THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN FAKAN FORREASONS 1

.4 b and d.

1. (S) Summary: The police in Karachi are only one of several armed groups in the

city, and they are probably not the most numerous or best equipped. Many

neighborhoods are considered by the police to be no-go zones in which even the

intelligence services have a difficult time operating. Very few of the groups are

traditional criminal gangs. Most are associated with a political party, a social

movement, or terrorist activity, and their presence in the volatile ethnic mix of the

world,s fourth largest city creates enormous political and governance challenges.

MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement)

2. (S) The MQM is an ethnic political party of the Urdu speaking community (known

as Mohajirs, which is Arabic for immigrants) that migrated from India at the time

of partition; Mohajirs make up around fifty percent of the total population in

Karachi. MQM is middle-class, avowedly secular, and anti-extremist (the only partyto publicly protest the recent Swat Nizam-e-Adl regulations). It has a long history of


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clashes with the Pakistan People,s Party (PPP), which controls the Sindh province in

which Karachi is located, and with the Awami National Party (ANP), which

represents MQM,s rival ethnic Pashtuns.

3. (S) MQMs armed members, known as Good Friends, are the largest non-

governmental armed element in the city. The police estimate MQM has ten thousandactive armed members and as many as twenty-five thousand armed fighters in

reserve. This is compared to the citys thirty-three thousand police officers. The party

operates through its 100 Sector Commanders, who take their orders directly from the

party leader, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom. The Sector

Commanders plan and monitor the activities of the armed elements. MQMs

detractors claim these armed men are involved in extortion, assassination of political

rivals, shootings at campaign rallies, and the murder of people from other ethnic

communities.

4. (S) Low to middle-ranked police officials acknowledge the extortion and the likely

veracity of the other charges. A senior police officer said, in the past eight years

alone, MQM was issued over a million arms licenses, mostly for handguns. Post has

observed MQM security personnel carrying numerous shoulder-fired weapons,

ranging from new European AKMs to crude AK copies, probably produced in local

shops. MQM controls the following neighborhoods in Karachi: Gulberg, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi, Landhi, Liaquatabad, Malir, Nazimabad, New Karachi, North

Nazimabad, Orangi Town, Saddar and Shah Faisal.

MQM-H (Muhajir Quami Movement-Haqiqi)

-

5. (S) MQM-H is a small ethnic political party that broke away from the MQM in the

mid-1980s. MQM-H has its strongholds in the Landhi, Korangi and Lines Area

neighborhoods of the city. The MQM regarded these areas as no-go zones when it

was in power during the Musharraf presidency. As a condition for joining the Sindh

government in 2003, it asked that MQM-H be eliminated. The local police and

Rangers were used to crack down on MQM-H, and its leaders were put behind bars.

The rank and file of MQM-H found refuge in a local religious/political party, SunniTehrik


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(see para 9). The local police believe MQM-H still maintains its armed groups in the

areas of Landhi and Korangi, and that the party will re-organize itself once its

leadership is released from jail.

ANP (Awami National Party Peoples National Party)

6. (S) The ANP represents the ethnic Pashtuns in Karachi. The local Pashtuns do

possess personal weapons, following the tribal traditions of the North West Frontier

Province (NWFP), and there are indications they have begun to organize formal

armed groups. With the onset of combat operations in the Federally Administered

Tribal Areas in August 2008, a growing number of Pashtuns fled south to swell the

Pashtun ranks of what already is the largest Pashtun city in the world. This hasincreased tensions between ANP and MQM.

7. (S) If rhetoric of the police and the ANP leadership is to be believed, these armed

elements may be preparing to challenge MQM control of Karachi. In March, the

Karachi Police Special Branch submitted a report to the Inspector General of Police in

which it mentioned the presence of hard-line Pashtuns in the Sohrab Goth

neighborhood. Sohrab Goth is located in the Northeast of the city.

8. (S) The report said this neighborhood was becoming a no-go area for the police.

The report went on to claim the Pashtuns are involved in drug trafficking and gun

running and if police wanted to move in the area they had to do so in civilian

clothing. A senior member of the Intelligence Bureau in Karachi recently opined that

the ANP would not move against MQM until the next elections, but the police report

ANP gunmen are already fighting MQM gunmen over protection-racket turf.

ST (Sunni Tehrik Sunni Movement)

-

9. (S) ST is a small religious/political group with a presence in small pockets of

Karachi. The group has only managed to win a handful of council seats in local

elections but militarily it is disproportionably powerful because of the influx of

MQM-H gunmen after the government crack-down on MQM-H (see above). ST has

organized the party and its gunmen along the lines of MQM by dividing its areas of

influence into sectors and units, with sector and unit commanders. ST and MQM


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have allegedly been killing each others leadership since the April 2006 Nishtar Park

bombing that killed most of STs leadership. ST blames MQM for the attack. There

appears to have been a reduction in these targeted killings since 2008.

PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party)

10. (S) PPP is a political party led by, and centered on the Bhutto family. The party

enjoys significant support in Karachi, especially among the Sindhi and Baloch

populations. Traditionally, the party has not run an armed wing, but the workers of

the PPP do possess weapons, both licensed and unlicensed. With PPP in control of

the provincial government and having an influential member in place as the Home

Minister, a large number of weapons permits are currently being issued to PPPworkers. A police official recently told Post that he believes, given the volume of

weapons permits being issued to PPP members, the party will soon be as well-armed

as MQM.

Gangs in Lyari: Arshad Pappoo (AP) and Rahman Dakait (RD)

11. (S) AP and RD are two traditional criminal gangs that have been fighting each

other since the turn of the century in the Lyari district of Karachi. Both gangs gave

their political support to PPP in the parliamentary elections. The gangs got their start

with drug trafficking in Lyari and later included the more serious crimes of

kidnapping and robbery in other parts of Karachi. (Comment: Kidnapping is such a

problem in the city that the Home Secretary once asked Post for small tracking

devices that could be planted under the skin of upper-class citizens and a satellite to

track the devices if they were kidnapped. End comment.)

12. (S) Each group has only about 200 hard-core armed fighters but, according to

police, various people in Lyari have around 6,000 handguns, which are duly

authorized through valid weapons permits. In addition, the gangs are in possession

of a large number of unlicensed AK-47 rifles, Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers

and hand grenades. The weapons are carried openly and used against each other as

well as any police or Rangers who enter the area during security operations. Duringpolice incursions, the gang members maintain the tactical advantage by using the


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narrow streets and interconnected houses. There are some parts of Lyari that are

inaccessible to law enforcement agencies.

Pashtun Terrorists

13. (S) A Senior IB officer recently opined to Post that All Pashtuns in Karachi are

not Taliban, but all Taliban are Pashtuns. The size, scope and nature of

Talibanization and true Taliban terrorist activity in Karachi is difficult to pin down,

but Post has increasingly received anecdotes about women, even in more upscale

neighborhoods, being accosted by bearded strangers and told to wear headscarves in

public.

14. (S) There has not been a terrorist attack against U.S. interests in Karachi since

2006. There are several theories about Taliban activity in Karachi and why they have

not staged an attack in so long. One school of thought has it that MQM is too

powerful and will not allow the Pashtuns to operate in Karachi, and this, combined

with the ease of operating elsewhere in Pakistan, makes Karachi an undesirable

venue. Another line of thinking claims Karachi is too valuable as a hiding place and

place to raise money.

15. (S) In April, the police in Karachi arrested Badshah Din Mahsud, from their Most

Wanted Terrorist list, known as the Red Book. It is alleged he was robbing banks in

Karachi at the behest of Baitullah Mehsud, from the NWFP, and the money was

being used to finance terrorist activity. There is a large body of threat reporting

which would seem to indicate the equipment and personnel for carrying out attacks

are currently in place in Karachi. In April, Karachi CID told Post they had arrested

five men from NWFP who were building VBIEDs and planed to use them in attacksagainst Pakistani government buildings; including the CID office located behind the

US Consulate. CID also claimed they had reliable information that suicide vests had

been brought to Karachi.

16. (S) Comment: The importance of maintaining stability in Karachi cannot be over-

emphasized. Traditionally, Karachi was at the center of lawlessness, criminal

activity, and politically-inspired violence in Pakistan. But with the security situation

in the rest of the country deteriorating, the megalopolis has become something of anisland of stability. Nevertheless, it still has a number of well-armed political and


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religious factions and the potential to explode into violent ethnic and religious

conflict given the wrong circumstances.

17. (S) The PPP,s decision to include MQM in coalition governments in Sindh

Province and in the federal government has helped preclude a return to the PPP-

MQM violence of the 1990,s. But the potential for MQM-ANP conflict is growing asPashtuns challenge Mohajir political dominance and vie for control of key economic

interests, such as the lucrative trucking industry. Any sign that political violence is

returning to Karachi, especially if it is related to the growing strength of conservative

Pashtun Taliban, will send extremely negative shockwaves through the society and

likely accelerate the flight from Pakistan of the business and intellectual elite of the

society. End comment.

FAKAN
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US Assessment of Karachi Violence

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