On Pakistan’s Independence Day this year, Noman roamed the streets near Karachi’s Memon Goth, until he fell into one of the many uncovered manholes and lost his life.

Noman’s father, Rehmat Ullah, is a resident near Memon Goth and works as a rickshaw driver. After looking for his son for half an hour and prodding the drain with a stick, they found the body.

Noman was loved by everyone and was born six years after his parents’ marriage.

Deaths resulting from uncovered manholes have become common in Karachi. At least 68 people were reportedly killed by these manholes in Karachi this year alone.

Moreover, there is a lack of proper data because many parents do not report their children’s deaths in the first place.

A similar incident occurred in Orangi Town when Razia, a 50-year-old woman, fell into a hole. A man who dived in to save her also lost his life after inhaling toxic gases. In September, a four-year-old girl named Umra Baloch, lost her life due to a sewerage drain in Mawach Goth. The family staged a protest and accused the relevant authorities of criminal negligence.

 

Deaths resulting from uncovered manholes have become common in Karachi. At least 68 people were reportedly killed by these manholes in Karachi this year alone.

 

Zahid Farooq, an official at the Urban Resource Center, said that responsibility for this negligence lies on the authorities of the area and its jurisdiction. The union council requests the town to provide how many covers they need, and the town, along with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), provides covers to the union council. Then, the UC distributes them.

In some cases, both the UC and the KWSB are directly involved, but primarily it is the UC’s responsibility.

Moreover, he stated that the contributing factors to these cases are “rain, load shedding, and a lack of streetlights in the area.”

He also pointed out the “quality of construction,” citing an example from Jehangir Road with weak infrastructure manholes. The main reason, according to Farooq, is the lack of “surveys.” Often, covers get broken, and there is also a shortage of resources to cover all the uncovered manholes. Furthermore, he emphasized that public participation is necessary.

Farooq said that people should approach the Union Council via verbal complaint if they encounter any opened manhole cover in their area. “Proper infrastructure, effective governance, and public participation are necessary to address these issues,” he added.

Aftab Chandio, the chief engineer of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KSWB), stated that a new policy has been implemented by the mayor, which includes the distribution of manhole covers. Chandio explained that responsibility is allocated based on specific areas, and many incidents that have occurred fall under the jurisdiction of other departments.

“There are more than three lakh manholes in Karachi,” said Chandio. Additionally, he pointed out that manhole covers are being stolen by drug addicts, and they also face quality issues. “We have distributed manhole covers to all 246 union councils in Karachi,” he added.
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He emphasized that recent incidents observed in Karachi are not within KSWB’s jurisdiction. Chandio noted that systems installed by the union councils are not being adequately maintained. Furthermore, he added that both the tragic events that happened in Memon Goth and Mowach Goth fall under the purview of the Public Health Engineering Department and the Rural Development Department.

Shaeran Rufus

The writer is a Karachi-based journalist passionate about human rights, social issues, and minority advocacy. She tweets at @ShaeranRufus

The post In Karachi, Deadly Manholes Are Killing Children As Authorities Shift Blame appeared first on Dissent Today.

On June 24, Manmohan Singh, a 35-year-old shop owner, was killed by an unidentified assailant in Peshawar while heading home from work in a rickshaw. This was the third incident of targeted killing of Sikhs in Peshawar this year, following the murder of the 40-year-old shopkeeper, Dyal Singh, in April. 

Dyal is survived by four children. According to his brother, Kaim Singh, during the month of Ramadan, Dyal would sell items at affordable prices at his shop. 

In another terror incident in July, Sardar Amir Chohan Singh narrowly survived an attack on Kohat Road in Peshawar. Singh was on his way to work when he encountered two individuals riding a motorcycle. The attackers had concealed their faces with masks and were carrying weapons with the intention of targeting Singh for a potential assassination. Singh was able to avoid the situation and safely returned home. An FIR was registered into this incident at the Rehman Baba Police Station, but the police have made no arrests so far. Tarlok Singh, the owner of a grocery store, survived a similar attack in June. 

In May 2022, two other shopkeepers, Ranjit Singh and Kuljit Singh, were shot dead at their shops in Bata Tal Chowk in Peshawar. 

Savinder Singh, the owner of a cosmetic shop in Saddar, Peshawar, received a threatening letter in July of this year that contained the message: “Next: “Next target soon. Wait for your turn. InshaAllah and Allahu Akbar”

Gurpal Singh, a Sikh activist and community leader, told Dissent Today that after the killing of Dyal Singh in April, approximately 159 families have left Peshawar for Punjab, with 80 children obtaining leave certificates from various schools in the city. He added that it is the Sikh men working as shopkeepers who are mostly being targeted in Peshawar. “The City of flowers”, he said, has now become “the city of blood”.’ Singh called on Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to take suo motu notice of such incidents. 

The caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan had announced an amount of PKR 3,00,000 ($980) to the families of Tarlok who was injured in an attack, and compensation of PKR 10,00000 (about $3,267) for the family of the slain Manmohan Singh. However, activist Gurpaal Singh revealed that the cheques were never given to the families, referring to them as ‘dummy cheques.’ The families have written a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar regarding the order, but they are still struggling to receive the financial compensation. 

Sikhs leaving Pakistan – a country where they once found safety 

According to Gurpaal Singh, there are approximately 15,000 Sikhs left in Pakistan. Despite their small numbers, the Sikh community holds significant historical and cultural importance in the country.

Due to regional instability, many Sikhs in Afghanistan migrated to Pakistan, India, and other foreign countries in the 1990s. The population decrease in the region was primarily due to various conflicts, such as the Afghan war and civil wars of 1992, resulting in a significant Sikh diaspora, particularly from Kabul and Jalalabad. The population, which was between 200,000 and 500,000 in 1970, had dropped to around 700 in 2020, according to a Sikh businessman.

Prior to the partition of the Indian subcontinent, an estimated 2 million Sikhs lived in Pakistan, mainly in the Punjab region. However, their population has drastically declined to only a few thousand since 1947.

The migration of Afghan Sikhs to Pakistan was due to various reasons, including a lack of security, incidents such as the burning of gurdwaras, suicide bombings, the imposition of jizya tax, and the Taliban’s ban on cremation customs.

Prior to the partition of the Indian subcontinent, an estimated 2 million Sikhs lived in Pakistan, mainly in the Punjab region. However, their population has drastically declined to only a few thousand since 1947. According to Singh, roughly 7,000 Sikhs currently reside in Punjab, with a concentration in Nankana Sahib and Lahore. Additionally, approximately 6,000 Sikhs live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

‘Militant group behind attacks against minorities’

Meanwhile, a police source told Dissent Today on the condition of anonymity that an investigation into the recent cases of targeted killing of the community was ongoing, which is why details regarding handlers and cells cannot be disclosed. The source indicated that there is ‘one militant group’ responsible for all cases of targeted killings of religious minorities in Peshawar this year.

According to a police source, a total of nine people were targeted, including three Muslim religious leaders, two Sikhs (one of whom survived the attack but was injured), one Shia, and two Christians. The police source further stated that the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), a.k.a. Daesh, has claimed responsibility for the targeted attacks. According to another police source, a 30-bore weapon was used in the recent killings, and there is a resemblance among weapons used in different attacks.

When asked about the upsurge in targeted killings in Peshawar, the police source attributed it to the influx of people migrating from Afghanistan to Pakistan due to the policies of the Afghan Taliban who have been ruling the country since 2021. In response to these attacks, the police claimed to have provided security to minority communities, installing security checkpoints at undisclosed hotspots after the killing of Manmohan Singh.

Radesh Singh Tony, a human rights activist, and Chairman of the Minority Rights Forum, stated that the Sikh community was being targeted not just in Peshawar but other parts of the country as well. Tony stated that these targeted killings began in 2013, starting with extortion and kidnapping incidents.

He said the first person to be killed in such targeted attacks was Bhagwan Singh in 2013 in Charsadda. In 2016, Dr. Soran Singh, the provincial minister for minority affairs, was also killed, he added. 

Criticizing the government, Tony, who once contested an election from Peshawar’s PK-75 constituency, questioned why they failed to trace the threatening calls and nab the culprits before the killings. According to the activist, the Sikh community is an easy target because they are recognizable due to their turbans and beards. 

Hate speech through loudspeakers 

Tony also stated that clerics in mosques practice hate speeches against minorities through loudspeakers, which is a reason for this rise in targeted killing of the Sikh community in the city.

Tony proposed that community policing should be introduced in bazaars by the government or police to easily identify terrorists, as the province lacks a dependable CCTV footage system. Despite victims reporting extortion calls, the police have not responded. 

“The biggest evidence of failure is that no one has ever been brought to justice for these crimes against the community,” he said.

However, a police source claimed that Police Liaison Committees already function as community policing. Another police source, addressing the absence of adequate CCTV cameras in bazaars, stated that they are working on the matter from multiple angles. The police also revealed that they have deployed a special force group for this purpose.

Shaeran Rufus

The writer is a Karachi-based journalist passionate about human rights, social issues, and minority advocacy. She tweets at @ShaeranRufus

The post Peshawar’s Sikh Families Are Leaving Their Homes to Escape New Wave of Targeted Killings appeared first on Dissent Today.