Targeted killings Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield. Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention within and between variou ...

in Pakistan (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: نشانی قاتلوں or ہدفی ہلاکتوں) have been a rising form of violence and have contributed to security instability in the country. They have become common and have gained attention especially in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, economic capital and capital city of the

Sindh province Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...

. Several targeted killings have also occurred in Quetta, the capital of the southern province of

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

. Police and law enforcement agencies have sometimes come under criticism for their ineffectiveness in locating the perpetrators and investigating their motives. For most part, targeted killings in Karachi have been attributed to political, religious and ethnic reasons. There are speculations about the killing but no real proof has been found against any party.

Overview

Karachi is a cosmopolitan city and consists of many ethnic communities; the city's

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...

play an important role in its

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

. Ethnic politics have resulted in sporadic violence throughout Karachi's history, often leading to bloody conflicts. Following the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

of Pakistan in 1947, Muslim immigrants from areas constituting modern-day India migrated in large numbers to the Muslim nation of Pakistan and became settled in Karachi, the historical capital of the

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

province. The early migrants who came and settled are known as Muhajirs, something which was resented by a portion of the province's native

Sindhi people Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan Ethnicity, ethnic group originating from and native to Sindh, a region of Pakistan, who share a common Sindhi culture, History of Sindh, history, #History, ancestry, and Sindhi language, langua ...

and radical Sindhi nationalists. After the breakaway of

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

in 1971 and the formation of Bangladesh, Pakistan accepted a large number of Biharis (known as "

Stranded Pakistanis Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh (, , ) are East Pakistani Urdu-speaking Muhajirs who emigrated from present-day India (then part of British India), and settled in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) following the partition of India in 1947. Thi ...

") loyal to the country, trapped in Bangladesh and offered them citizenship. The Bihari migrants assimilated into the diverse Urdu-speaking Muhajir population. Some

Bengalis in Pakistan Bengalis in Pakistan are ethnic Bengali people who had lived in either West Pakistan or East Pakistan prior to 1971 or live in present-day Pakistan. Most Pakistani Bengalis, are bilingual speaking both Urdu and Bengali and are mainly settled ...

also stayed behind. The

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghan (ethnon ...

(Pakhtuns or Pathans), originally from

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

FATA The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a autonomous administrative division, semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from Independence Day (Pakistan), 1947 until being merged with the ...

and northern

, are now the city's second largest ethnic group in Karachi after

Muhajir Muhajir or Mohajir (, '; pl. , ') is an Arabic word meaning ''migrant'' (see immigration and emigration) which is also used in other languages spoken by Muslims, including English. In English, this term and its derivatives may refer in a general s ...

s. With as high as 7 million by some estimates, the city of Karachi in Pakistan has the largest concentration of urban Pakhtun population in the world, including 50,000 registered

Afghan refugees Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who were forced to flee from their country as a result the continuous wars that the country has suffered since the Afghan-Soviet war, the Afghan civil war, the Afghanistan war (2001–2021) or either p ...

in the city. As per current demographic ratio

are about 25% of Karachi's population. Religious minorities often face violence and target killing in Pakistan, even though the country's Constitution guarantees them equal rights and the freedom to practice their faith. Karachi's status as a regional industrial centre attracted migrants from other parts of Pakistan as well, including

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

migrants from the frontier regions. Added to this were Iranians, Arabs, Central Asians as well as thousands of Afghan refugees who came to Karachi, initially displaced by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; some of the Afghan and Pashtun migration brought along conservative tribal culture, further intensifying ethnic and sectarian violence and also giving rise to mob culture.Karachi - Daily Sun
/ref>

Prominent victims of target killings

:''This list is incomplete. Please help expand this list.'' *

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

* *

Murtaza Bhutto Murtaza Bhutto (; , 18 September 1954 – 20 September 1996) was a Pakistani politician and leader of al-Zulfiqar, a Pakistani left-wing militant organization. The son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, he earned a ...

* Athar Ali (scientist) *

Ameer Faisal Alavi Ameer Faisal Alavi (28 March 1954 – 19 November 2008) was a Pakistan Army two-star general and special operations expert who was the first General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the elite Special Service Group of Pakistan Army. A former member o ...

Arshad Sharif Arshad Sharif (; 22 February 1973 – 23 October 2022) was a Pakistani journalist, writer, and news anchor. He specialized in investigative journalism and covered many political events in the country for national and international news organisa ...

Wali Khan Babar Wali Khan Babar (Urdu, ; 5 April 1982 – 13 January 2011) was a Pakistani journalist working for GEO News who was killed by gunmen in the Liaquatabad area of Karachi. His murderers Saulat Mirza and Faisal Mota (who are target killers of MQM) ...

* Rustam Jamali * Safdar Kiyani * Khalid Shahanshah * Hussain Ali Yousafi * Sabeen Mahmud *

Perween Rahman Perween Rahman (22 January 1957 – 13 March 2013) was a Pakistani social activist, director of the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute. She was murdered on 13 March 2013. Biography Perween Rahman was born on 22 January 1957, i ...

Mohsin Naqvi Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi (born 28 October 1978) is a Pakistani politician and media mogul who has served as Ministry of Interior (Pakistan) 13 June 2025 to 11 March 2024 and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board since 6 February 2024. He is ...

Hakeem Muhammad Saeed Hakeem Muhammad Saeed (; 9 January 1920 – 17 October 1998) was a Pakistani medical researcher, author, scholar, and philanthropist. He served as governor of Sindh Province from 19 July 1993 until 23 January 1994. Saeed was one of Pakistan's m ...

* Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi *

Amjad Sabri Amjad Farid Sabri (23 December 1970 – 22 June 2016) was a Pakistani qawwali singer and a proponent of the Sufi Muslim tradition. Son of Ghulam Farid Sabri and nephew of Maqbool Ahmed Sabri of the Sabri Brothers, he emerged as one of So ...

* Ali Raza Abidi *

Liaquat Ali Khan Liaquat Ali Khan (1 October 189516 October 1951) was a Pakistani lawyer, politician and statesman who served as the first prime minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the he ...

Salman Taseer Salman Taseer (; 4 January 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician, who served as the 34th Governor of Punjab from 2008 until his assassination in 2011. A member of the Pakistan Peoples Party since the 1980s, he was elected to the ...

Afzal Kohistani Afzal may refer to: Places in Iran *Afzal, Iran, a village * Chah Afzal, Yazd, a village People First name *Afzal Ansari (born 1953), Indian politician *Afzal Hossain (born 1954), Bangladeshi actor, director, writer and painter *Afzal Khan ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Welcome to the jungle

Express Tribune ''The Express Tribune'' is a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the flagship publication of the '' Lakson Group'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliated newspaper in a partnership with the '' Intern ...

Behind the violence in Karachi
7 Sep 2011.
Death of civility
The News International, 5 June 2012 Politics of Pakistan Terrorism in Pakistan Murder in Pakistan Spree shootings in Pakistan Human rights abuses in Pakistan

Overview

Prominent victims of target killings

See also

References

External links