Criminals on the rampage

While the grief-stricken followers of Pakistan People's Party in particular and others in general mourned the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto, criminals and antisocial elements went on the rampage, destroying public and private property at will.
Within a few hours as the word went round on Thursday afternoon that Benazir had expired, arson and plunder was let loose on the pretext of showing sympathy for the departed leader.
The type of holocaust witnessed by the people of Karachi was simply shocking and unbelievable. These elements, surely, had nothing to do with the tragedy that had struck the Bhuttos. The PPP Chairperson would have never allowed such an ugly display by her sympathisers to express their sentiments. She had always upheld discipline, and believed in good manners. She wanted to inherit a stable country and not a devastated land to suck her energies on rebuilding the battered infrastructure.
Not only Karachi, several other cities in Sindh and Punjab were hit by the mad display of anger, resulting in destruction. People returning home from work were pulled out of their vehicles, deprived of cash and their vehicles were set on fire. In fact, many motorists, on seeing burning vehicles ahead of them, abandoned their vehicles to save their lives.
In Hyderabad, and elsewhere, vandals entered residences of people with no political affiliations and deprived them of valuables and other items which could fetch a few coins.
Right from Karachi New Town police station up to Nipa roundabout, completely burnt down cars, motor cycles and public transport presented an ugly sight. It is a sad commentary on the behaviour of the people. According to an unofficial calculation around 1,500 vehicles of all types were burnt down during this ugly and futile exercise. What did the plunderers gain out of this destruction?
The shortage of public transport would add to the problems of commuters. Office-goers, and students in particular, would face misery as less number of public transports may be seen on the roads when the city returns to normalcy on Monday.
But for the quick decision of the federal cabinet to call out for army's assistance in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities, hit by violence, to restore law and order and deal with the miscreants firmly the criminals would have played havoc with the lives and property of innocent citizens.
Following the deployment of army and rangers, the harassed citizens have taken a sigh of relief and despite the fact that Saturday was totally a closed holiday, being the second day of mourning, some private cars and three-wheelers came back on the roads.
Nobody approves of the sort of vandalism witnessed on Thursday night. Persons from different walks of life, with no political affiliations who were interviewed by Business Recorder, held more or less the same views and expressed similar sentiments on these outbursts.
They regretted that for no fault of theirs, ordinary law-abiding citizens were confronted with situations not of their making. They emphasised that the government should deal with such elements with a firm hand and set an example, particularly in view of impending elections where such ugly scenes could be repeated.