Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi

Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi
US Embassy cable - 09KARACHI138

SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Identifier:
09KARACHI138
Origin:
Created:
2009-04-22 11:52:00
Classification:

Tags: PTER ASEC PGOV PK

VZCZCXRO6005
OO RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHKP #0138/01 1121152
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 221152Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL KARACHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1042
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
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
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 03 KARACHI 000138 
 
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 FOR REASONS 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 party to publicly 
protest the recent Swat Nizam-e-Adl regulations).  It has a 
long history of 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) MQM\'s armed members, known as \"Good Friends,\" are the 
largest non-governmental armed element in the city.  The 
police estimate MQM has ten thousand active armed members and  
as many as twenty-five thousand armed fighters in reserve. 
This is compared to the city\'s 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.  MQM\'s 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 (Consulate) 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, Sunni Tehrik 
(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 
 
KARACHI 00000138  002 OF 003 
   
 
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  
has increased 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 have allegedly been killing each other\'s leadership 
since the April 2006 Nishtar Park bombing that killed most of 
ST\'s leadership.  ST blames MQM for the attack.  There 
appears to have been a reduction  in these targeted killings 
since 2008. 
 
PPP (Pakistan People\'s 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 PPP workers.  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.  During police incursions, the gang 
members maintain the tactical advantage by using the narrow 
 
KARACHI 00000138  003 OF 003 
   
 
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 attacks against 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 an island of 
stability.  Nevertheless, it still has a number of well-armed 
political and 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 
as Pashtuns 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

-- 
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

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