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| Nichola Khan |
Furthermore, when the party holds a city hostage by bloodshed and destruction under the guise of fighting for human rights, it is a downright insult to people’s intelligence.
The antipathy felt for the
MQM’s terror tactics by organisations and people desirous of social change
through non-violent democratic processes is matched by their abhorrence for all
perpetrators of violence, whether they inflict it in the name of religion, or
in the name of nationalism. Nonetheless, fear and aversion aside, there are many
who would like to understand how so many young men get sucked into a system
that so flagrantly defies the law, that disregards basic human tenets and which
has, apparently, no value for life.
A fine anthropological study by
Nichola Khan, a lecturer at Brighton University, is now available that can
perhaps answer these questions. We learn through Khan’s book, that the killers
are not psychopaths – they have made choices, and then proceed to follow
instructions handed down to them. The men engaged in such activities talk of
their experiences clinically, describe their acts of violence in graphic
detail, and discuss what motivated them to adopt their chosen paths. The
stories of their very personal pathways to violence are eye-openers, and often
very sad. They are not mechanical beasts, and often their disillusionment with
their party leadership can be sensed. Yet, they continue on their course. That
such people can be amidst us – for they have not been apprehended, tried or
punished for their crimes, is eerie – is a cold hard reality in Pakistan today.
Nichola Khan’s book, Mohajir
Militancy in Pakistan: Violence and Transformation in the Karachi
Conflictprovides a vivid glimpse into the lives of four MQM killers, and one of
the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). There is also a brief account of a woman, a widow,
and the induction of her two sons into the MQM’s militant cadres. The book
neither comments on, nor judges the various characters, and only describes what
they did and how they came to do so. The author analyses some of the actions by
invoking several researchers of similar violence in other countries – Northern
Ireland, Spain and India, to name a few. The purpose is not to compare acts and
forms of violence, but to examine how various researchers explain the many possible
causes underlying violence. This is a scholarly enterprise and the 20 pages of
reference material is ample proof of the sincere effort made by the writer to
lay bare a very complex phenomenon. In doing so, the many determinants of
violence come to light. Exploring the life of some MQM militants, the writer
states:
“….. whilst diverse social
contexts shaped the process of acquiring adult autonomy for militants,
reproducing dominant-gender hierarchies of dominance, militancy also
represented a particularistic disinvestment of parental values and societal
conventions. But why, in a situation of large-scale political mobilisation, did
only some men become notorious killers? How do the highly disciplined
male-dominated cultural aspects of political violence bear on the gendered
dynamic of boys’ relations in the family, particularly with fathers?”
She then reflects:
“From Anna Freud to Erikson,
theorists of adolescence have stressed the establishment of emotional autonomy
and independence from parents as a central feature, whilst also acknowledging
the influence of earlier intra-psychic dynamics in the formation of adult
identities, and the role of history and society in determining the duration and
modalities of social adolescence.”
In her profiles of the MQM
militants – young men of modest backgrounds, inspired by the party’s message to
address the unfairness experienced/observed by the Mohajirs – one can perhaps
understand to some degree, where the rage stems from. But would this explain or
justify the wide-scale murders committed by the party cadres, the mayhem
engendered and the petty crime indulged in, with poor Mohajirs – the people who
the MQM claim to champion the cause of – often being the victims?
Thus, while those readers of
Nichola Khan’s book who live in Karachi and have been exposed to the many bouts
of violence unleashed by the MQM on their city, may begin to get a glimmer of
understanding of the genesis of the party and the complexion of its cadres, it
is unlikely to dislodge their contempt for the violence perpetrated by the
party.
The underlying causes of the
making of a killer are not easy to establish, especially among those who are
the direct or indirect victims of violence. A purely intellectual reaction is
perhaps possible only when the violence has abated, and even if not forgotten,
receded in memory. Pakistanis may find it easier to understand the ruthless
killings in other conflict-ridden countries, but to clinically understand and
discuss the killings within Pakistan would be a monumental task.
All that notwithstanding,
Nichola Khan’s exposé of the thoughts and feelings of some killers in their own
words is eye-opening.
Says one killer: “By 1997, life
was unbearable. Many loyalists died. There was immense government pressure to
eliminate us. Many top-class boys were martyred. I left for South Africa on
fake papers. My friends remained, but I built a good business there. Why stay
and be killed?”
Says another young MQM man:
“Nobody murders for nothing. Circumstances forced us… After my brothers and
brother-in-laws were killed in 1996, I fled to Bangkok. On my return in 1998,
the police remanded me for 14 days. They registered 33 false murders against
me. Those I had committed, they weren’t aware of ! I received bail and fled to
Bangkok. I’m keen to forget that life.”
There are also narratives of
how a pregnant woman was decapitated in her house and how workers sleeping on
Karachi footpaths were gunned down. Orders were given, received, and acted
upon, but the book does not describe the source of these orders. There is also
an account of a ‘friendship’ between two rival militants – one from the MQM and
the other from the Jamat-e-Islami. This relationship reveals a human dimension
that is retained through the madness, despite the gross inhumanity engendered
by the men’s actions. What sense/meaning can be derived from this reality? The
reader is left to draw his/her own conclusions.
This book is a ‘must read’ for
all those keen to understand the MQM. But it would perhaps be most beneficial
for MQM supporters and workers, not least because the book lays bare the
suffering that violence inflicts on the militants themselves and their
families.
Dilemma is over, Raise it for better Karachi better Pakistan
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