Скачать или смотреть PAKISTAN: GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF SANCTIONING VIOLENCE

(8 Aug 1998) Urdu/Eng/Nat
The Pakistani government is under pressure to crack down on street fighting between rival factions of a militant ethnic party that has left 200 dead since the start of summer.
Paramilitary troops which now swarm the streets of Karachi have done little to stop deadly battles between rival factions of the group known as the M-Q-M - leaving residents feeling rattled and angry,
The military presence has also enraged one faction of the M-Q-M, which is allied with the ruling party.
M-Q-M leaders accuse the government of sanctioning violence against their supporters.
This has become a normal part of everyday life on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan's port city of some 12 (m) million people.
Rival supporters of a group known as the M-Q-M routinely attack each other's party headquarters and places of business - violence that has dramatically increased in the past few months.
The M-Q-M (Muttahida Quami Movement) represents Indian Muslims who settled in Pakistan after the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 by departing British colonialists.
They say they are fighting for their rights in an Islamic country which has never treated them as equals.
The group split several years ago due to an internal power struggle.
The M-Q-M - meaning united movement - has since been locked in battles with the breakaway faction called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi.
Violent clashes between the two groups have left more than three-thousand people dead.
Mohajirs, which means immigrants, make up 70 percent of Karachi's 12 (m) million people.
Most live together peacefully and many say the violence is little more than political rivalry.
But residents of Karachi are fed up with the fighting and want the government to do more to stop it.
SOUNDBITE: (Urdu)
"The government has failed .....it has done nothing for the ordinary people. We don't care whose government is in power, either Nawaz (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) or Benazir (Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister). We want our livelihood restored. Karachi's life has been totally paralysed."
SUPER CAPTION: Akram Ali, Karachi resident
The latest wave of fighting erupted in June when more than 270 people were reportedly killed, many of them innocent victims caught in the crossfire.
It captured the local headlines and had many opposition politicians demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif do more to stop the violence.
But Badar Iqbal, a senior member of the M-Q-M Haqiqi faction, says they are not battling against the rival M-Q-M faction, but simply fighting for their rights in Pakistan.
He blames the U-S and Israel - both often accused in Pakistan of backing violence there - and also targets the rival M-Q-M faction leader.
SOUNDBITE: (Urdu)
"The M-Q-M has repeatedly asserted that it is not a fight between two groups...but it is a fight for the survival of Pakistan. M-Q-M is the only party which is fighting forces which are against Pakistan such as Americans, Jews and (rival M-Q-M faction leader) Altaf Hussain. These forces are taking Karachi towards anarchy."
SUPER CAPTION: Badar Iqbal, Senior Vice Chairman for the M-Q-M Haqiqi
A spokesman for the other faction admits the party has had some struggles, but believes all will change once Mohajirs win the rights they deserve.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"M-Q-M is a kid. A small kid, talking in a challenging manner, talking and bringing (to the) middle class, lower middle class and poor class politics and culture - it has to be done, or else people will get killed. But I am sure the day will come when we will surmount all these difficulties."
SOUNDBITE: (English)

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