Dear Masood Sahib: 

I have nothing to do with either MQM or Altaf Hussain.  I am interjecting solely because I have received your exchanges in my Inbox. I am additionally entitled to write this mail because the 1992 Karachi Operation did adversely affect my Urdu Speaking family and friends, who had no affiliation with MQM or Altaf Hussain.  I also know from personal sources that many innocent youths were killed by the army or had to leave the city because the army’s approach was indiscriminate and brutal. The operation was accompanied by a racist demonization of the entire Urdu Speaking population of Karachi all over Pakistan.   Its aftershocks were evident as late as 2007 when liberals like Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan were saying “Yeh log waheen chalay jaen, jahan say aaey hain.”  So, the 1992 Operation and its repercussions are not as trivial or as MQM-specific as one might think. 

You mentioned at least twice that you have far more interest in the tragedies that are happening today.  You must have meant the suicide bombings in Pakistan in recent years where Islamist terrorists have blown thousands of Pakistanis into smithereens [What else could be bigger tragedies of today?].  If that is the case, I will commend you for your strong humanist dimension.  However, in this backdrop, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to study the 1992 Karachi Operation and its reasons carefully as the same army establishment that pulled the 1992 Karachi Operation against a left-leaning population later promoted the right-wing Islamists in the country and abroad which eventually led to the Islamist violence that has bled  Pakistan to the core.  It is no coincidence that the Pak Army showed a lot more reluctance in moving against the TTP in 2009 than it did in moving against the Karachiites of 1992.  Akbar Bugti was evaporated, while Fazlullah is still alive.  (In sub batoon  mein  Ahle Eman kay liye bari nishaneean maujood hain!).   Yes, you are not likely to affect an iota by understanding the 1992 Karachi Operation,  but at least it may improve your insight in the today’s tragedies you are rather interested in.  

You may agree that no further investigation is warranted into the 1992 Karachi Operation after its chief protagonists have admitted to forging evidence.  So, this is no more just an MQM propaganda stunt, and there is no confusion in this regard.  Please recognize that the tragedies you are currently interested in will also be 17 years old in 2026, but their lessons will still be valid then. 

Best regards,  

Dr.  Engr. Syed Imam Haider