Unemployment, police excesses created Lyari gangs

Lyari Town, an oldest locality of the city with population around 2 millions, has turned into a safe haven for drug peddlers, pickpockets and notorious gang war.

Scores of notorious persons have earned reputation as Lyari kings such as successors of Babu Dakait, Haji Lalu, Majeed Speed, Kala Nag and various others, who have been either killed in mutual clashes or sent to jail.

Residents alleged that concerned authorities had neglected the situation from the very beginning that gave rise to crimes in the area. They believed that gang war would resume if the ongoing situation not changed.

Talking to The Nation on Tuesday, notorious gangster, Gaffar Zikri, confessed “I was fond of weapons since my childhood”, adding “When I was a mere 12-year-old boy and going home with a friend, a drunken policeman posted at the checkpoint near my lane stopped us and gave us a severe thrashing. I could not bear such humiliation.”

Zikri said that one day he along with his friends Muhammad Ali, Saeed alias Kajal and Qadir alias Shambay, found the same policeman alone at the post and attacked him with rods and took away his submachine gun. As a result, the police issued a warrant to arrest him and his friend Muhammad Ali.

This was a turning point in Zikri’s life. Since he had been declared an absconder, he felt encouraged to join the gang that ruled the roost in the locality at the time - the infamous Haji alias Lalu group - to escape arrest. Once into the fold, he met Rehman Dakait, then the right-hand man of Lalu.