Amid the deteriorated and volatile law and order situation in the country, rumors and speculations reign supreme in today’s Pakistan especially in Karachi. As the people find it difficult to forget the anarchy, chaos, violence, arsons, loot and plunder following the assassination of former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto in an election campaign rally in Liaqatabad, Rawalpindi, with each rumor they rush to their homes apprehending that the anarchy, plunder and arson might revisit the city as a backlash.

On Monday the rumours’ grinding mills became one again active in Karachi, spreading the news of assassination of a PPP leader.

As the rumours of murder of Sardar Nabeel Gabol, a local PPP leader and former MNA, spread in the city, people became panicky.

The baseless news spread panic and fear across the city and people fearing any backlash of the ‘incident’ rushed to their homes. As everyone tried to reach home in a hurry, which led to gridlocks and chaotic traffic jams on all major vehicular arteries of the city.

In some areas, armed men got down the shutters of the shops.  It all started when some alleged miscreants resorted to firing near a PPP election rally in Karachi, led by Nabeel Gabol.
Following the incident, people started receiving calls and SMS stating that Gabol had been killed. All major markets, bazaars and shops closed down as people fled home in panic, fearing another December 27-like situation. Huge traffic jams ensued on all major roads, including II Chundrigar Road, MA Jinnah Road, Shahra-e-Faisal, University Road, and Rashid Minhas Road.

Owners of petrol pumps also started shutting down their stations immediately, adding to the woes of motorists, many of whom remained stranded on the main city arteries for hours.

All traffic signals were switched off after the extraordinary rush of vehicles to add insult to injury the traffic police vanished from the scene Police said that gangsters belonging to the Ghaffar Zikri group attacked PPP rally on Tannery Road. The attack was allegedly to avenge the killing of a gang member, Ismail Afghani, in a police encounter in the Baghdadi area Saturday night.
A newspaper report quoting unnamed sources that Rehman Dakait was, himself, near the rally and sustained three bullets after the firing. However, he managed to flee from the scene.

An Armed Personnel Carrier (APC) of Lyari Town police was damaged, an unidentified man shot dead while six people, including a wanted gangster of the Rehman Dakait group and a minor child, were injured.

As the rumours of Nabi Gabool’s death spread, certain areas of the city including Lyari became tense and people took out to streets. All shops and markets in Lyari were completely shut.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Nabeel Gabol personally visited the Lyari area, assuring residents that he was alive and well and the news of his assassination was baseless and just a rumour.

It may be mentioned that a day before Monday, rumours of assassination of Makhdoom Amin Faheem spread and that also caused panic and fear among the people of Karachi.

On Saturday, people in Karachi and other parts of the province started receiving SMSs and calls that Amin Faheem was murdered in Hyderabad. Some days back rumours of attack on JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also spread in the country.

With each rumours the people of the country especially Karachi experienced mental shock, agony and trauma. As they have completely lost faith in law enforcement agencies and administration that they would provide them security in case of any untoward situation, they attempt to rush to safer places to avoid of being victim of violence, arsons and plunder, which usually followed any high profile murder or other incident.

The government apparatus including law enforcement agencies, which are being fed by the hard-earned taxpayers’ money, have miserably failed to do their primary duties.

Be it May 12, 2007 mayhem or the violence after the Dec 27 tragic incident each and every time government apparatus especially the law enforcement agencies were found wanted to perform their basic duties.

Even during the May 12 mayhem the gangsters and armed men were given free hand by the law enforcers to virtually rule the city and 48 innocent people were mercilessly massacred on the roads of Karachi, as the police and Rangers were nowhere in sight to contain the violence and stop the gangsters from murdering innocent people.                  

As the law enforcers were also found extremely wanted in this front following the December 27 incident, some people argued that the violence and arsons rocked the country especially the province of Sindh was engineered and planned to gain vested interests.

Even some PPP leaders believed that what they said, planned and engineered violence, was an attempt to avoid and at least delay the elections to deprive PPP a ‘sweeping victory’ owing to the sympathy wave for the party among the masses after its chairperson’s assassination. 
 
Questioning the grounds leading to the delay in elections, a PPP leader told this scribe that if in some districts of Sindh the offices of election commission were ransacked then what was the logic for delaying elections process in the whole country.    

He argued that if election commission was unable to conduct polls in some districts of Sindh then election on only these constitutes could be delayed. ‘Instead the EC on PML-Q’s dictation postponed the elections in a bid to salvage the King’s party from a humiliating defeat,’ he alleged.

Political circles and other quarters said that the rumors were being spread deliberately in the country to create panic and fear among the masses so that they could not participate in electioneering. They said that the atmosphere of fear and panic suit and favour the ‘political orphans’ and the allies of the present regime, who, they said, had lost people’s confidence owing to the string of crises ranging from sugar, wheat, edible oil, to electricity and gas.

“If peaceful and conducive environment prevails during polls people will come out without fear and security concerns. This in return will lead to wiping out of the King’s Party and other government allies in the political arena,” a leader of major opposition party said.

It may be noted here that some hidden hands have also became active in Sindh especially Karachi to create ethnic rifts that serve their purpose.

As the police, Rangers and other law enforcers disappear following any tragedy, criminal and gangsters, have started exploiting any untoward situation and they resort to plunder, loot and arson. It is revealed that for quite some time, criminal and gangsters use any high profile murder or any law and order situation as an excuse for their criminal activities. 
 
Therefore, there is an immediate need of a thorough probe to ascertain who are behind the rumours’ grinding mills and what are their objectives, otherwise these element could cause major damage to the country and its integrity, solidarity and ethnic harmony.