It was sixteen years earlier on the ill-fated day of June 19, 1992 that Karachi experienced one of the worst moments in its existence. The people of Karachi became victims of a targeted semi-genocidal operation developed by various agencies which were later found to have undeniable and strong links with the Government at that time.
These were innocent people with families struggling to make a living in the feudal dominated elitist philosophy rampant across Pakistan’s social strata, the social strata that was questioned by the ideology of The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a movement that was created to shake the status quo of power in Pakistan, a movement that was dedicated to the soul of Pakistan’s public and became a voice for everyone including the lower and middle income groups, the person on daily wage, the struggling housewives, the laborers, the small businessmen, the students.
MQM’s existence has forever been a threat to the power players of Pakistan who fear that if the movement’s ideology took hold in the country, it would diminish their psychological hold on the public. As MQM started to evolve, these power players strategized to break up the party; they presented the MQM’s leadership with lucrative offers in a bid to buy them out but they could not succeed, because the strength of MQM has forever been the passion and dedication of its workers and their belief in the ideology.
Failing to break up the movement, what conspired was the chaos of June 19, 1992; when these innocent people were slaughtered, their only crime was that they supported the movement.
June 19 is acknowledged as the “Black Day” in Karachi’s history, representative of the destruction that the citizens witnessed. The agencies advantageously collaborated with the Haqiqi group whose members were originally a part of MQM but were disowned due to their involvement in terrorism and other illegal activities. The Haqiqis had a score to settle with MQM and had strong financial backing. They also had the license to kill.
“Operation 92” as it’s titled was targeted to kill MQM supporters but resulted in a massacre of the citizens of Karachi. Such an operation was the first of its kind that experienced covert terrorism unchecked by the government and the police force. Premeditated activities were advised to these terrorists that included brutal rape and murder of women, torture of men, and the elderly, looting of houses, hostage, and family threats all for the sake of punishing them for their beliefs.
It has been 16 years since that episode and still the effect lingers, the victims and their families have not been able to stabilize themselves. While the political parties and their leaders demand enquiries for every incident that happens in the country no one has questioned the event of June 19, 1992 in Karachi. MQM takes up this matter every time a new government comes into power but still the questions remain unanswered, intentionally.
While the movement cannot bring back the innocence that the victims’ lives have lost, it realizes that its voice is stronger and is heard by everyone due to the people who stood up for the movement on June 19th.
MQM honors those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the cause of MQM; our cause is the cause of every single person out there.
"Rahay haq kay Shaheedon tum ko salam"
