Quick recap: Was 2020 a peaceful year for Karachi?

• The brazen attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange was a major terror attack in Karachi on June 29.
  
• On October 10, Maulana Prof Dr Muhammad Adil Khan and his driver were murdered in Shah Faisal Colony.
  
• The metropolis also suffered over half a dozen cases of other attacks carried out on police and Rangers officials.

KARACHI: Karachiites did not have a peaceful 2020 as it witness several acts of terrorism after the activation of sleeper cells of different militant organisations. 

According to a news report published in The News Monday, Karachi still grapples with threats to the law and order situation as law enforcement agencies are yet to solve several terror cases and bring the groups behind all the violence to justice.

June 29: PSX attack

The brazen attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was a major terror attack to have occurred in Karachi on June 29.

The attack aimed to hurt the country’s economy as well as its relations with China, which has been developing a game-changing international business corridor in partnership with Pakistan.

Four people were killed after gunmen stormed the PSX compound. Four gunmen attempted to attack the stock exchange building, firing indiscriminately as they got out of their car and charged towards a security barrier at the entrance.

Read more: PSX attack: 'My father is a national hero', says daughter of martyred security guard

Two attackers were killed at that barrier, while the other two were shot dead in an exchange of fire with security officials in the compound’s parking lot. Three private security guards and a police officer were killed by the gunmen.

At least seven people were wounded in the attack. The attackers had also been carrying hand grenades.

The attack was carried out by a nationalist party of Balochistan that is funded by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing, which is more commonly known by its acronym RAW.

But the PSX attack was not the only case of terrorism in Karachi this year.

Several attacks on the Rangers and police officials and the murder of a religious scholar have severely affected the peace of the city.

October 10: Assassination of Maulana Prof Dr Muhammad Adil Khan

On October 10, Sunni sect religious scholar Maulana Prof Dr Muhammad Adil Khan and his driver were murdered in Shah Faisal Colony when attackers opened fire on the scholar’s double-cabin vehicle.

Dr Khan, head of the Jamia Farooqia seminary, had been on his way home in the Hub River Road area from Darul Uloom in Korangi when he had come under attack.

“Both these major incidents of terrorism are linked to those that have occurred in Karachi over the previous years, but the investigators have failed to solve the past cases and bust the groups responsible,” said a senior police officer.

“Had the investigators succeeded in solving the previous cases, there might have been a lower possibility of more terrorism in the city. And since this year’s terror cases also remain unsolved, it is feared that more incidents of terrorism might be in store next year.”

Connections to previous cases

The PSX attack has been linked to the Chinese consulate attack of November 2018, and Dr Khan’s assassination has been linked to at least two attacks that have been carried out on Sunni religious leaders over the last few years.

On February 15, 2015, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat chief Maulana Aurangzaib Farooqi came under attack in District Korangi and survived the attempt on his life.

On March 22, 2019, Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi’s Mufti Taqi Usmani was on his way to deliver the Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Baitul Mukarram on University Road when two motorbike riders fired at his car on the ramp of the Nipa flyover.

Read more: PSX attack: Terrorists received directions from Afghanistan

Mufti Usmani and his family, all of whom were in the back seat, survived the attack, but their police guard Muhammad Farooq and driver Habib were killed.

“Unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies were only able to trace and arrest the facilitators of these cases, encouraging key operatives and masterminds of foreign-funded militant and nationalist organisations to continue to remain active in Karachi,” said another senior police officer.

Attacks on Rangers and police officials

The metropolis has also suffered over half a dozen cases of other attacks that were carried out on police and Rangers officials.

Though investigators have accused the Sindh Revolutionary Army (SRA) of attacking Rangers officials, they have failed to trace and arrest the key suspects responsible.

Cases of target killings of policemen also remain unsolved, despite the fact that for the first time in seven years, banned terrorist organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the murders.

Other major terrorism-related incidents in Karachi

Two more major terror incidents were carried out in the city just this month: in one, terrorists attempted to blow up a vehicle of a Chinese national in the upmarket Clifton neighbourhood and in the other, a hand grenade explosion injured four people, including two Rangers soldiers, just outside the University of Karachi.

Officials suspect that both incidents are connected to the previous incidents of terrorism believed to have been carried out by the RAW-funded Balochistan Liberation Army and SRA.