Daily Times

Just a few days ago, a man blew himself up in Mastung, killing over 150 and injuring more than 200 people. The attack also resulted in the untimely death of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate Siraj Raisani.

The alleged suicide bomber is one Hafeez Abbasi. Before his career as a terrorist, the young man in his 20s was a student at a Karachi seminary. The word of God no longer remains pure when mixed with “mullahs” and it seems that somewhere on the path to enlightenment is a detour that leads to hell.

The popular narrative will tell you that people end up on the wrong side of the law because of poverty and desperation. It will tell you that people from far flung areas, who don’t know any better, become entrapped in extremist thinking.

But this man was made in Karachi. He may have been a resident of Dhabeji in Thatta, and his family may have originated from Abottabad, but it is Karachi that taught him what he knew. He found militancy in Pakistan’s financial capital, and he worked for Haji Daud — a former Karachi police officer who ditched his uniform for a position with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The CTD team that was sent to investigate found the father of the killer, who said Hafeez has moved to Afghanistan with his wife and children. Three of his daughters are married to IS militants in Afghanistan.

So, what makes a milk and vegetable seller a terrorist?

Karachi has a militancy problem, one that we have ignored for a good amount of time. And it doesn’t peek from the shadows of society, it stands tall and takes centre stage. One can’t help but be reminded of Saad Aziz, the IBA-educated man who had real promise. The Balochistan angle in both cases is hard to ignore.

But the problem isn’t Karachi-specific; other metropolitan cities are grasping at straws instead of coming up with concrete solutions to this heinous problem. This isn’t the first or last of its attack — but how respond to these attacks will define what the next chapter reads.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 22^nd 2018.