| First MQM insurrection | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of MQM Militancy | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Armed Afghan migrants | ||||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||
 APSMO |  Pakistan Army  Sindh Police Sindh Rangers | Armed Afghan migrants | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| 1000+ killed | ||||||||
In between 1972 and 1992, MQM militants launched multiple attacks against Sindh government and civilians in order to get a stronghold over Karachi. The first insurrection came to end following Operation Cleanup by Pakistan government in order to destroy the MQM stronghold in Karachi.
The ancestor of the MQM was the All Pakistan Muttahidda Students Organization (APMSO), drew its support from muhajir defectors from the heavily armed Islami Jamiat ut-Taleba(IJT). A large number of Jamaat-i-Islami members who were ethnic Muhajirs shifted their loyalties to the MQM overnight, resulting in the elimination of the former influence of the Jamaat. APMSO was radicalised when in 1985-86 the first (of the many) major clashes took place between Karachi's Muhajir and Pushtun communities. [1] Faced by the superior firepower brought in by Afghan refugees, MQM dispatched a delegation of APMSO members to Hyderabad to meet a militant group from the Sindhi nationalist student organisation, the JSSF. APMSO were given some small firearms by PSF in the early 1980s, but it was JSSF that sold the APMSO its first large cache of AK-47s that were then used to tame the heavily armed IJT in 1987 and 1988, eventually breaking IJT's hold at KU and in various other state-owned campuses in Karachi. Admist ethnic violence, MQM's armed wings used street fighting and urban warfare as ethnic Muhajirs sought to use violence to control governing structures and appointments such as the Karachi Port Trust, Karachi Municipal Corporation and the Karachi Developmental Authority. [2] During the MQM's stint in power in 1991, when it was part of the provincial government of Sindh, the party endorsed and participated in raids and the mass-arrests of its political rivals. Additionally, the MQM, supported by the government, was accused of operating as a mafia organization where its heavily armed militants used extortion and coercion to increase their influence. [3]
The first victims of the MQM in the 1980s were primarily ethnic Pashtuns, who were generally targeted on trivial grounds which the MQM did its best to exacerbate. [4] In 1985, a bus accident led to the death of Bushra Zaidi, by an Azad Kashmiri Punjabi driver, [5] [6] [7] ignited tensions and resulted in riots in Orangi Town of Karachi. Mobs, especially university students, attacked ethnic Pashtuns and policemen, blaming the ethnic group for car accidents in the city, resulting in the killings of over 100 people. [6] [8] [9] [10] During the riots, the APMSO printed and distributed inflammatory pamphlets against the ethnic group, grounding the city to a halt and shutting down educational institutions. [11] On September 30, 1988, [12] hundreds of people, mostly Muhajirs, [12] were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh in what was known as "Black Friday". The death toll was above 250, [13] and the attacks are said to have been coordinated and carried out by Sindhi nationalist militants. [12] 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. [14]
The following day Sindhis were killed in ethnic rioting which killed at least 46 people. [15] A curfew was enforced in both Karachi and Hyderabad. [16] In total over 200+ people died by MQM retaliation in the span of two days. In 1990, in a response to a police raid on MQM militants which caused the deaths of 60 Muhajirs civilians, [17] [18] MQM retaliatory attacks led to the deaths of 130 Sindhis. [19] [20]
The MQM's initial source of funding relied on Zakat, voluntary donations from its members. However, in the 1990s, the MQM adopted a new approach called "Bhatta" or forced tax and protection money collection from commercial areas in Karachi. The party also resorted to illegal funding methods such as bank robberies in 1988. [21] The "Bhattia" mafia extorted money from various professionals, including traders, businessmen, bankers, doctors, teachers, construction workers, and religious figures. This illegal funding scheme blurred the lines between politics and crime in Karachi, as some criminal groups transformed into political parties' armed wings. [22] [23]
MQM has allegedly resorted to violence against journalists and media outlets critical of the party's violent activities. [24] Starting from 1991, the MQM engaged in destructive activities against newspapers that criticized them, with members of the group involved in looting and burning down offices. In fact, the management of Herald publications in Karachi had to suspend the distribution of the Dawn newspaper on March 21, 1991, after what it called a week-long "terror campaign" carried out by the MQM which involved abductions, intimidation, and attacks against newspaper vendors, distributors, and hawkers. [25]
Operation was launched by Sindh Police to target MQM workers in Pakka Qilla Hyderabad. Over 250 besieged innocent men, women, children was massacred during the operation which carried on for 275 hours before Pakistan army men eventually moved in. [26]
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 2 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.
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).
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 1993–94, as part of her internal policies.
Jinnahpur refers to an alleged plot in Pakistan to form a breakaway autonomous state to serve as a homeland for the Muhajir people.
The Mohajir Qaumi Movement Pakistan also known as Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi), MQM-Haqiqi is a political party claiming to represent the Mohajir in Sindh, Pakistan whose leader is Afaq Ahmed.
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 Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan. The community includes those immigrants' descendants, most of whom are settled in Karachi and other parts of urban Sindh. The Muhajir community also includes stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh who migrated to Pakistan after 1971 following the secession of East Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War.
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) represents the Urdu-speaking Muhajir and is a political rival of the Pashtuns who have migrated to the city from northwest Pakistan. Haider, a Shia Muslim, was killed as he attended a funeral at a mosque.
The Qasba–Aligarh massacre was an ethnic massacre that took place when recently settled armed tribal Pashtuns from KPK, Pakistan and Afghanistan attacked densely populated civilized 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" by newly settled armed Pashtuns following an unsuccessful raid on a Pashtun heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces. Most of the residents of the two colonies happened to be Muhajirs like Biharis who had been freshly repatriated from Bangladesh.
Bushra Zaidi was a 20-year-old girl whose death in a traffic accident on April 15, 1985 started riots in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Bushra, a 20-year-old Muhajir student of Sir Syed College, died after being struck by a bus driver. It was thought at the time that the driver was Pashtun.
On September 30, 1988, hundreds of people, mostly Muhajirs, were killed in Hyderabad, Sindh in what was known as "Black Friday". The death toll was above 250, and the attacks are said to have been coordinated and carried out by Sindhi nationalist militants. 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.
1972 Language violence in Sindh occurred starting on 7 July 1972 when the Sindh Assembly passed The Sindhi Teaching, Promotion and Use of Sindhi Language Bill, 1972 which established Sindhi language as the sole official language of the province resulting in language violence in Sindh.
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. However, this movement never gained support from the populace of urban Sindh.
Persecution of Muhajirs or Human rights abuses against Muhajirs or Anti-Muhajir sentiment ranges from discrimination, mass killings, forced disappearances and torture, to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech of Muhajirs, mainly those belonging to the right wing party Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan.
The Muhajir Province Movement is a proposed province movement in the Pakistani province of Sindh. This movement is backed by a Muhajir pan-nationalist political and ethnic movement seeking to establish a separate province in Sindh which seeks to represent the Muhajir people of Pakistan. It is proposed to consist of Muhajir-majority areas of Sindh which would be independent from Sindh government.
Pucca Qila Massacre was a coordinated massacre of Muhajir civilians conducted by Sindh police on the orders of the PPP-led Sindh Government. The massacre resulted in the deaths of more than 162 Muhajirs. The massacre 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.
Second MQM insurrection refers to an insurrection by MQM, a political and militant organisation representing muhajir people which launched an insurrection in 1978 against Sindh government as well as multiple other opponents.This insurrection was suppressed by Pakistan army in the Operation Cleanup. In 1994 after military's withdrawal, MQM launched another insurrection this time more bloody than the previous one. It's intensity died down following Operation Lyari and Karachi targetted action but it's still a low level insurgency.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)However, after the MQM emerged on the scene, it changed the direction of mohajir politics and decided to join hands with Sindhis in a grand coalition against "outsiders". In 1985, when Bushra Zaidi was crushed under traffic, the mohajir-armed bands attacked the residential colonies of Pathans who were generally identified with the transport sector.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)In fact , Sarwar Awan's PPI was the ultimate reaction against the open hostilities of MQM on pretext of Bushra Zaidi's mishap . Bushra Zaidi was a student of a college situated at the Rizvia Chowrangi , Nazimabad , Karachi .
It is significant that on May 27, the police were deployed and ready to deal with the procession in the Fort area and other demonstrations else- where. For example, three jeeps carrying policemen drove at great speed into the Fort procession, making the people give way. And, apparently the women, when challenged to stop, dared the police to open fire, "because we are carrying the Holy Quran on our heads." The police--one policeman is reported to have shouted, "They are prostitutes" did open fire, causing a stampede, the shrieking women and children rushing into the Abdul Wahab Shah Jilani Shrine for shelter and the men running toward Station Road. 24 Ambulances arrived and carried off the dead and the wounded to nearby hospitals, first to Bhitai Hospital-which had only "one small operation theatre," so that the surgeons were obliged to operate in the corridors and then to the St. Elizabeth and Mohammadi hospitals. All these frenzied events were taking place to the deafening noise of voices over the loudspeakers installed in various mosques, screaming, "Come out of your homes, Muhajirs are being killed"; "Please arrange cots and bedding for the injured"; "Rush to the hospitals and donate blood." In response, "volunteers put up shamianas [tents] in the hospital compound, while women queued to donate blood."
MQM's armed wings got involved in this clash, and did so when it flared again in 1990, in which 130 Sindhis were killed.