The conflict between the Pathans and the Urdu-speaking people in Karachi is not new. It is almost as old as Pakistan. The two groups have all along distrusted and even hated each other. But of late, the conflict has become exceedingly bitter. Only last month, rioting between the two communities left at least 58 dead and many more injured. The rioting broke out again on Sunday, leading to the massacre of at least 54 persons. The ferocity of what happened is evident from agency reports. According to these reports, women and children were dragged from their houses and beaten, teenagers were tossed into blazing houses (350 shops and houses had been set on fire), young boys stabbed and their skulls smashed. On all available accounts, the Pathans took the initiative. Armed with Kalashnikov rifles and other weapons, they launched a preplanned attack on the rival Mohajir community. This is understandable in terms of the prevailing tension between the two groups. But it is plausible that the Pathans were infuriated by the anti-drug and anti-arms police raids on them – most of the policemen in Karachi are Urdu-speaking – and directed their fury at the Mohajirs whom they, in any case, hold in utter contempt.
A large number of Pathans come to Karachi in search of jobs and many of them live without their families. As such they are more liable to get drawn into anti-social activities than others. The growth of the heroin trade in recent years has inevitably aggravated this problem. For the Pathans in Karachi have links which go back to opium-growing areas in the NWFP and Afghanistan. As it happens, the sharp rise in drug smuggling, in which the Pathans in Karachi are heavily involved, has been accompanied by an increase inthe illegal arms trade on the one hand and an upsurge in communal awareness among the Urdu-speaking people on the other. The arms trade is the direct result of Pakistan’s involvement in the arming of Afghan Mujahideens. The Mohajirs from India have always seen themselves as a beleaguered community and resented the Punjabi-Pathan domination. But this self-awareness has grown, as rule by the predominantly Punjabi-Pathan army has continued, in one form or another. None of these developments is unexpected. Perceptive Pakistani observers have said that the presence of three million Afghan refugees, many of them armed and otherwise well-provided for by the US Central Intelligence Agency and American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, would strain the country’s social fabric. They have also drawn attention to the growth of drug smuggling and the illegal trade in arms and pointed out that it was inconceivable that the Soviet and Afghan authorities in Kabul would not one day retaliate against Pakistan. We are in no position to say that Kabul has finally reacted to Islamabad’s provocations. But no one need be surprised if it has. The Zia regime has been playing with fire and it is possible that it has singed its fingers.