“No go areas” in Karachi liberated from Taliban influence

A police officer, while freely roaming in the streets of a Talibanized area (area that was under Taliban influence), said that these areas used to be known as ‘war zone’ but now these ‘no go areas’ have been liberated. The word ‘Talibanization’ was on everyone’s tongue, few years ago. If Pak-Afghan border area was a playground for terrorist groups then Pakistan’s Commercial hub Karachi has been the gold mine and the ideal hideout for them. Taliban have been hiding in populated Pashtun areas and practically made them ‘no go zones’ and threatened the local people with activities of extortion and kidnapping for ransom in order to provide funds to their Mujahedeen. However, Pakistani officials have been saying that things have changed now, Talibanization has ended in Karachi. A police officer named Azfar Mahisar said “I can say with full confidence that 70-80% militants have been exterminated, only few are left in Karachi but they are not in a position to re-unite in the way they used to be few year earlier.”

Police officer said that Peshawar incident has opened the eyes of people all over the world and we had to take strong actions. A security specialist in Karachi Zia ur Rehman said that the end of links between Karachi and Meeranshah has greatly helped the law enforcement agencies to clean Pushtoon majority areas of militants. An old women named Fatima, who lives in Manghopir, thanked Allah that Taliban left their area. She said that Taliban made people feel threatened and they could not even go to markets. The caretaker of Peer Haji Mangho’s shrine in Manghopir Khalifa Sajjad said that when Taliban established their influence in the area it became extremely difficult to provide food to the crocodiles that live in the pond adjacent to the shrine because people had stopped visiting the shrine but now everything has revived and crocodiles are getting enough food. Local leaders appreciated the anti-Taliban operation and said “God knows where have they gone, maybe they are hiding somewhere near or they might have gone back to the place from where they came. No one can answer this question”. However, they said that criminals in the city are a bigger threat than Taliban. ANP leader Rauf Khan said “several things have completely changed. We feel mentally independent now in a way we had not felt in last 15-20 years. I went to the cinema last night and came back late and this was something that I had not done in years.