Political Ferment in Karachi

Declan Walsh and Zia ur-Rehman have an interesting story today, "Taliban Spread Terror in Karachi as the New Gang in Town." The Pakistani Taliban is targeting two rival Karachi political parties -- the ethnic Pashtun Awami National Party and the ethnic Mohajir Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- and taking their turf.

Police officials, militant sources and Pashtun residents say that three major Taliban factions operate in Karachi — the most powerful one, which is rooted in South Waziristan and dominated by the Mehsud tribe, and two others from the Swat and Mohmand areas.

A senior city police officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that militant commanders with those factions send operational orders to Karachi from the tribal belt; while some captured militants have tried to justify their activities by citing the authorization of religious clerics in the northwest. 

In cases, he added, regular criminal groups have posed as Taliban fighters in a bid to increase their power of intimidation. 

Just why the Taliban are adopting such an aggressive profile in Karachi right now is unclear. Some cite the greater number of militants fleeing Pakistani military operations in the northwest; others say it may be the product of dwindling funds, as jihadi donors in the Persian Gulf states turn to the Middle East.

Imagine a city like Karachi -- 20 million souls (compared to New York City's 8.3 million) with real political parties (not the completely moribund ones, both ruled by the 1%, that are featured in our dysfunctional duopoly). We bomb countries in the name of democracy, but those countries, at least in the case of Pakistan, often times have more democracy than we do.

For a brief period I attempted a study of Pakistan's politics. I read several books by Tariq Ali; on my web browser I bookmarked Dawn and Foreign Policy's AfPak Daily Brief. But it proved too much to keep up with.

Walsh and ur-Rehman conclude their story by saying that a brake on the Taliban's spread in Karachi could be Mullah Omar himself:

Other factors limit the Pakistani Taliban’s ingress into Karachi. One of the more provocative ones is that allied militants — particularly the Afghan Taliban — might not like the added publicity. The Afghan wing has long used the city as place to rest and resupply. There are longstanding rumors that the movement’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is taking shelter here, and that his leadership council, known as the Quetta Shura, has met in Karachi.