Another bhai killed; more violence to follow

It is a done thing in Karachi and Urdu parts of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas. That when the MQM leader is killed violence must follow. Karachi, the center of all MQM, is the hardest hit among the cities of this unfortunate country. This mega city, where the infamous center of attraction 90 (MQM Headquarters) is situated, sees the most blood around. And Pathans get the most whacking for God knows why.

Yesterday, MQM's kicked-out leader, Dr. Imran Farooq, was murdered with knives in London, a city much known for love-hate relationship with Pakistanis. First, it was match fixing scandal and now it is the murder of the former top leader of MQM, a terrorist organization, which has paired the names, 'London' and 'Pakistani'. And those two pairings have been rather unfortunate for the entire nation.

It must be noted that this particular leader had fallen out of favor of Mr. Altaf Hussain, the pig-faced leader of MQM, now stationed in London since 1992, some two years back. Since then, as some reports are today suggesting, he has been living in some sort of poverty. Just imagine a founder member of a party like MQM living in 'some poverty', is this not very strange? Not so. In Pakistani politics everything goes. Just look at Altaf Hussain and his antics on TV. He is crying like a fat baby whose most lovable toy has just been snatched. As is known among MQM cadre and party workers, Dr. Imran Farooq was no lovable toy of Altaf Hussain and that these 'crying' stints of its leader are just media-savvy.

In Karachi, the popular version today is that MQM itself has killed this man. One may not be sure because in London murders using daggers / knives is a pretty common crime. So, perhaps, Metropolitan Police, will be looking into this matter with all such facts, not least that he had fallen out of favor of its own citizen, Altaf Hussain. I hope this time around someone in London will catch the thief.

Hindu temple, Netty Jetty, Karachi

Hindu temple, Netty Jetty, Karachi
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Hindu, a local of Karachi, feeds the remaining fish at the temple, which was built during British Raj in Sub Continent. This constant feeding has caused extreme level of pollution on the edge of this Arabian Sea. Unfortunately, religious leaders and government officials turn a blind eye to this and other such practices. I was fortunate enough to have been allowed within this temple. Generally, minority Hindus keep Muslims away from their temples in Pakistan.

9/11 - Changed perceptions

I was just reading this nice blog on Dawn today by a former student, who was there in USA when planes struck Twin Towers.

I was in Pakistan at that time and I was also a student, a sort of a fire-brand type. It was evening and darkness had already pervaded our university. I can clearly recall that that day I was sitting in my computer lab and for some reason I was late in going home. Almost all my classmates had already left for home. On another system my classmate, Ovais, was sitting when he suddenly called me over informing me that some building in USA is under fire. I looked at the screen and thought maybe some odd fire had broken inside. I was wrong. Ovais hastily told me that it was some plane, which had hit the twin towers. Twin towers for me was a new term. I went home.

At home, as soon as I entered, my mother greeted me with more than a flourish and invited me to look at the screen, which was positively blackened with the dark, billowing smoke coming out from the towers. It was CNN and the anchor was horrified at what was happening just behind her. I was just beginning to settle when suddenly a plane took a sharp turn and rammed into the second tower, which till then had been standing amidst chaos and drama. It later emerged that planes had been hijacked and used as suicide material. What an ingenious idea that was, I had thought. And I was really very glad, just like my parents and siblings, that finally that great Satan had been 'controlled'. Future events and the consequences for Muslims the world-over would prove us all wrong. These terrorist attacks into the heartland of USA had not only shaken the great Satan, it had in effect woken them up and all of us to the reality of international terrorism. A reality, which sadly has harmed interests of Muslims world over.

Today I and my parents feel that the events of 9/11 were not perpetrated by Jihadis (as CNN would have us believe) but by real terrorists, people who have no faith or religion. Today I can see clearly that killing of innocent Americans, whether Jews or Christians or Muslims, won't serve anyone's purpose. We cannot ask for revenge on a common American for the misdeeds of their Army and politicians in Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine. This we all Muslims should understand and realize. We cannot isolate ourselves from the real world and continue to fool around. We must consider murderers and killers as terrorists and not some good Muslim Knights.

Today I am not happy that common Americans were killed that day. I just hope I wasn't happy in 2001, when the events broke out. But I was and I accept it now.

Mules Mansion, Karachi

Mules Mansion, Karachi
Originally uploaded by bukhaari

I simply adore this building. And today when I saw this shot I at once decided to blog it. And I got good information from Dawn website, which I would like to share with you all, on this classic building. Here it goes:

'The Mules Mansion was designed by Moses Somake (who was born in Lahore on June 6, 1875 and died in London on April 6, 1947). It was named after the first chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, Charles Mules. After partition of the subcontinent the mansion served as the Naval Headquarters for a certain span of time. Subsequently the place was used for different purposes, including residential. In fact a few pen-wielders used to live in the building in the ‘70s.'

Further, our author tells us,

'Architect Noman Ahmed says: “It’s a lovely building constructed in the Anglo-Oriental style. There is a slight influence of the Renaissance method as well – for example, the orderly arrangement of columns. The Anglican features that can be readily noticed are the beautiful keystones, horizontal grooving and the symmetry maintained in its construction.

“It’s a structure inspired by the KPT building (curvilinear), which is why it has functional orientation, that is, it was made for a particular purpose,” says Noman Ahmed.'