I've been off the blog for a while, pulled away by internet outages, trips out of town, and general busy-ness. But Benazir's death has prompted a return to cyberspace for me.
We're all still in shock, even a week later. Here in Karachi, it wasn't just the assassination itself but also the awful violent paroxysm that followed, which shut the city down for 3 solid days and a fourth measured one. I was out when news of her death broke, and immediately around me the shutters of shops started slamming shut. The shopkeepers aren't dumb; they know how this goes. They were well aware that the violence was about to erupt and they needed to get themselves and their wares out of sight. So we were blocked unceremoniously from entering a shop and left standing on the street while chaos and panic erupted all around us.
Thus began the long journey home, a journey that normally would have taken only 5-7 minutes at most, but ended up taking over an hour. Traffic was backed up on each and every road, small and big. Karachi had been turned into a massive parking lot, with everyone who was out trying desperately to get back home to loved ones and to relative safety. As I sat in the traffic jam, I looked around at the people in the vehicles around me and saw stunned faces. Some were crying openly. No one was smiling except for a man and woman in an expensive car who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Maybe they just react to bad news in a really strange way, but maybe it was that they're so disconnected with the country that this too was just a big joke to them (along with the dictatorship, the crackdown on civil society, the failing economy, and the daily violence of the jehadis and the army).
I later learned that cars had been smashed and burned at the end of the street we'd been stuck on. As we neared home, we drove up to an intersection where several men were setting fires. One of them looked up angrily from his task at me, arm raised. I wasn't sure what to do so I just gunned the engine, and for some reason he let me pass. One of those crazy random chances one gets in life. The worst thing by far I saw that night, though, was a long line of domestic workers (men and women) at a bus stop, trying to find a way to get home. Buses and other public transport had stopped running, since they had become one of the first targets of mass violence. But these workers were in an elite neighborhood, far from home, and there was no way for them to get back. The fear and worry on those faces, especially of the women, is something I will never forget.
In Karachi, there were deaths caused by gunfire and one factory fire. The factory fire was apparently accidental. The workers inside were Muhajir and Pathan, and feared the mostly-Sindhi mob outside, so they didn't come out when the warning to vacate was given. For the most part though, deaths were few, and the targets of the violence was mostly property. In any case, anyone who had a home was hunkered down in it until Sunday. We were all under house arrest.
Benazir's death shut down the whole country - no other leader could have had this kind of nation-wide impact. No corner of Pakistan was untouched. Karachi, however, was clearly hit the hardest. According to news reports, between Thursday evening and Sunday evening, there were more than 700 vehicles burnt, and approximately 20 banks torched. The most common target was any building or vehicle that was visibly government property, such as post offices, railway bogies, KESC trucks, and other government offices. The targeting of elite symbols such as banks (and at least one cafe) was also interesting. It could either be that people were just looking for cash, or that this is a sign of the brewing revolution. I don't know. It's also the case that there was a lot of opportunistic looting, much of it by MQM ghundas.
I don't know how Karachi keeps taking body blows like this repeatedly and keeps bouncing back. I wish I could be so resilient, but I'm afraid I'm still not quite back to normal.
Thus began the long journey home, a journey that normally would have taken only 5-7 minutes at most, but ended up taking over an hour. Traffic was backed up on each and every road, small and big. Karachi had been turned into a massive parking lot, with everyone who was out trying desperately to get back home to loved ones and to relative safety. As I sat in the traffic jam, I looked around at the people in the vehicles around me and saw stunned faces. Some were crying openly. No one was smiling except for a man and woman in an expensive car who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Maybe they just react to bad news in a really strange way, but maybe it was that they're so disconnected with the country that this too was just a big joke to them (along with the dictatorship, the crackdown on civil society, the failing economy, and the daily violence of the jehadis and the army).
I later learned that cars had been smashed and burned at the end of the street we'd been stuck on. As we neared home, we drove up to an intersection where several men were setting fires. One of them looked up angrily from his task at me, arm raised. I wasn't sure what to do so I just gunned the engine, and for some reason he let me pass. One of those crazy random chances one gets in life. The worst thing by far I saw that night, though, was a long line of domestic workers (men and women) at a bus stop, trying to find a way to get home. Buses and other public transport had stopped running, since they had become one of the first targets of mass violence. But these workers were in an elite neighborhood, far from home, and there was no way for them to get back. The fear and worry on those faces, especially of the women, is something I will never forget.
In Karachi, there were deaths caused by gunfire and one factory fire. The factory fire was apparently accidental. The workers inside were Muhajir and Pathan, and feared the mostly-Sindhi mob outside, so they didn't come out when the warning to vacate was given. For the most part though, deaths were few, and the targets of the violence was mostly property. In any case, anyone who had a home was hunkered down in it until Sunday. We were all under house arrest.
Benazir's death shut down the whole country - no other leader could have had this kind of nation-wide impact. No corner of Pakistan was untouched. Karachi, however, was clearly hit the hardest. According to news reports, between Thursday evening and Sunday evening, there were more than 700 vehicles burnt, and approximately 20 banks torched. The most common target was any building or vehicle that was visibly government property, such as post offices, railway bogies, KESC trucks, and other government offices. The targeting of elite symbols such as banks (and at least one cafe) was also interesting. It could either be that people were just looking for cash, or that this is a sign of the brewing revolution. I don't know. It's also the case that there was a lot of opportunistic looting, much of it by MQM ghundas.
I don't know how Karachi keeps taking body blows like this repeatedly and keeps bouncing back. I wish I could be so resilient, but I'm afraid I'm still not quite back to normal.
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