1988 Hyderabad Massacre | |
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Part of Violence against Muhajirs | |
Location | Hyderabad, Pakistan |
Date | 30 September 1988 |
Deaths | 250 |
Victims | Muhajirs |
Perpetrators | Qadir Magsi and Sindhi nationalists |
Part of a series on |
Violence against Muhajirs |
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Pakistan |
Bangladesh |
On September 30, 1988, [1] hundreds of people, mostly Muhajirs, [1] were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh in what was known as "Black Friday". The death toll was above 250, [2] and the attacks are said to have been coordinated and carried out by Sindhi nationalist militants. [1] Unidentified gunmen opened fire on large crowds of innocent bystanders, including women and children, in Latifabad. The MQM accused Qadir Magsi and nationalists carrying out the attack. [3]
The following day Sindhis were killed in ethnic rioting which killed at least 46 people. [4] A curfew was enforced in both Karachi and Hyderabad. [5]
In total over 200+ people died in the span of two days. MQM, the largest Muhajir party, would broaden its scope as a party of the middle class following this incident, emphasizing the common physical suffering of the local Muhajir community in parallel to its socioeconomic decline. [6] [ page needed ]
In 1988, the massacre, which was committed in the Zia regime (Zia was assassinated in August 1988), occurred as a result of brewing ethnic and political tensions between Sindhi nationalists and Muhajir communities. [7] Zia-ul-Haq, the then President of Pakistan, had been killed in a plane crash the month before, leaving political and democratic possibilities open in Pakistan. Demographic considerations were a huge part of political discourse that led to ethnic rioting throughout the late 1980s.
Following the 1988 massacre, Qadir Magsi was detained without trial or conviction for five years. He was eventually released on bail pending trial. [2]
In July 2003, a Hyderabad trial court exonerated Qadir Magsi and eight others who were accused of perpetrating the massacre.
The Sindh High Court upheld the trial court's judgement in 2007, exonerating 41 additional suspects. [2]
Hyderabad is a city and the capital of Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the second-largest city in Sindh, and the fifth largest in Pakistan.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), previously known as Muhajir Qaumi Movement, is a secular political party in Pakistan that was founded by Altaf Hussain in 1984. Currently the party is split between two main factions. MQM-London faction is controlled by Altaf Hussain from London, while MQM-Pakistan is run by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui based in Pakistan. Its electoral symbol was a kite.
Altaf Hussain is a British Pakistani politician who is known as the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He holds United Kingdom citizenship and has been living in exile in the UK since the start of Operation Clean-up. Since 2015, he has been a fugitive from the Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan on the charges of murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech. He went on trial in the UK in January 2022 for promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan, and was acquitted the next month. He had fled the country in 1992 after a crackdown against his party was launched.
Qader Magsi is a Pakistani politician from the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party.
The All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organization is a Pakistani student organization notable for creating a political party: the Muhajir Quami Movement, now called the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party is a left-wing Pakistani political party. Dr. Qadir Magsi is the chairman of Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party.
The Sindhudesh Movement is a separatist movement, based in Sindh, Pakistan, seeking to create a homeland for Sindhis by establishing an ethnic state called Sindhudesh, which would be either autonomous within Pakistan or independent from it.
Hyderābād City (Haidarābād), headquarters of the district of Sindh province of Pakistan traces its early history to Neroon, a Sindhi ruler of the area from whom the city derived its previous name, Neroon Kot. Its history dates back to medieval times, when Ganjo Takker, a nearby hilly tract, was used as a place of worship. Lying on the most northern hill of the Ganjo Takker ridge, just east of the river Indus, it is the third largest city in the province and the eighth largest in the country with an expanse over three hillocks part of the most northerly hills of the Ganjo Takker range, 32 miles east of the Indus with which it is connected by various routes leading to Gidu Bandar.
Operation Clean-up, also known as Operation Blue Fox, was an armed military intelligence program led by the Sindh Police and Pakistan Rangers, with an additional assistance from the Pakistan Army and its related intelligence agencies. Planned by the FIA, Intelligence Bureau and launched the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1992, the program was more strictly pursued by upcoming Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1993–1994, as part of her internal policies.
The Muhajir people are Muslim immigrants of various ethnic groups and regional origins, and their descendants, who migrated from various regions of India after the 1947 independence to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan. The community includes those immigrants' descendants, most of whom are settled in Karachi and other major urban centres of Pakistan.
The 2010 Karachi riots started on August 3, 2010, after the assassination of Parliament member Raza Haider, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party, on the night of August 2, 2010, in Karachi, Pakistan. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) blamed the Awami National Party, it's political rival, for the killing. Haider, was killed as he attended a funeral at a mosque.
The Politics of Karachi takes place at the municipal, provincial and federal levels of the government. Karachi is a multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural and multireligious metropolitan city. The demographics of Karachi are important as most politics in Karachi is driven by ethnic politics.
The Qasba–Aligarh massacre was an ethnic massacre that took place when recently settled armed tribals attacked densely populated locals in Qasba Colony, Aligarh Colony and Sector 1-D of Orangi in Karachi in the early hours of the morning on 14 December 1986. According to official reports, around 49 people were killed and several hundred were injured in what was perceived as a "revenge killing" following an unsuccessful raid on an Afghan heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces who were met with violent retaliation. As part of the operation, the security forces surrounded the area with bulldozers destroying illegally encroached houses and removing the residents. Most of the residents of the two colonies who were attacked as a result happened to be Muhajirs like Biharis who had been freshly repatriated from Bangladesh.
Operation Lyari is a Pakistan Government crackdown against local gangs and other crime syndicates and part of the greater Karachi Operation.
The Sindh Mohajir Punjabi Pathan Muttahida Mahaz was a political party in the Pakistani province Sindh. The party was founded in 1969. Nawab Muzaffar Khan was the convenor of MPPM. In theory the party sought to serve as a political platform for Muhajirs, Pashtuns and Punjabis in Sindh, but in reality it functioned as a Muhajir political party as the Pashtun and Punjabi presence in the MPPM ranks was very limited. The party mobilized Urdu-speaking Muhajirs against the emerging Sindhi nationalist movement. It was led by Muhajir bureaucrats and businessmen. The main base of the MPPM was the city of Hyderabad.
The Insurgency in Sindh is a low-intensity insurgency waged by Sindhi Nationalists against the government of Pakistan. Sindhi nationalists want to create an independent state called Sindhudesh.
Pucca Qila Operation was an operation launched by Sindh Police on the orders PPP led Sindh government against MQM party workers and ordinary protesters in the Pucca Qila area of Hyderabad city. The operation resulted in the deaths of more than 70 people, including men, women and children. The incident resulted in the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto government by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, allegedly on the orders of Pakistan army.
MQM militancy refers to militancy in Pakistan associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party.
In between 1972 and 1992, MQM's first insurrection came to an end following Pakistan government's Operation Cleanup conducted in order to destroy the MQM stronghold in Karachi.