Khaled Ahmed - Confessions of a dreaded don are a reminder of crime-politics nexus in Pakistan

By Dilip -
Pakistan’s most well-known dacoit, Uzair Jan Baloch, is once again in the news, having confessed to murdering 198 people during his career as the “boss” of the Lyari Gang in Karachi. He was arrested from the UAE on December 28, 2015, and everyone thought he would be summarily gotten rid of. But he is still around, presenting himself before the courts trying him for murder and billions in extractions (bhatta) shared with the politicians in power. Uzair is also alleged to have provided Iranian intelligence agencies information about the Pakistan Army, and orchestrated hundreds of targeted killings and politically-motivated murders.

Uzair is hopefully the last of the Baloch dacoits of Lyari, Karachi’s largest district. If he gets his comeuppance, it will be the end of a classic Sindhi interface with the Baloch legend that linked Karachi to Balochistan on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. Most of the “wadero” (feudal) aristocracy of Sindh traces its ancestry to Baloch warriors. Uzair Baloch, scion of a family hailing from Iranian Balochistan, was caught travelling on a fake Iranian passport to the UAE and has to face trial for killing and dismembering his rival Arshad Pappu in the style of the Taliban killers in the north.


After his arrest, Lyari reacted by closing shops, as if in anticipation of inter-gang shootouts. A reluctant Pakistan People’s Party, that couldn’t counter the charges of maintaining a nexus with Uzair’s gang, suffered the mourning in Pakistan’s most dangerous town in silence. ..
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/uzair-jan-baloch-karachi-pakistan-6522099/?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASDYAQE=&utm_source=Taboola_Recirculation&utm_medium=RC&utm_campaign=IE

More articles by Khaled Ahmed


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