Word: karachi
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...Occasionally, reality does intrude into this TV-inspired and narcotics-fueled never-never-land of Karachi's pampered ?lite. After Islamic terrorists exploded a car bomb outside the U.S. consulate last year, members strolling on the flower-banked lawn at the colonial-era Sind Club nearby found the severed arm of a woman, with lacquered fingernails and bangles, which had been blown over the wall. The woman was one of the 12 fatalities, and 43 others were wounded in the consulate attack. Club president, Hussain Haroon, whose family owns the English-language Dawn newspaper and has been prominent in Karachi...
...generating centers" and catching thieves and murderers is a secondary occupation. Police earn money by shaking down prostitution and gambling rings, and they will often demand a bribe even to register a complaint for burglary. A constable's monthly wage is only $69; a typical middle-class salary in Karachi is $2,000 a year...
...police officer admits that at first his men were also afraid of the extremists, who had informers inside the police force. They were also well equipped, he says, with guns smuggled across the lawless frontier with Afghanistan and money from Arab donors. "We have over 800 madrasahs in Karachi, and many of them are nurseries for terrorism," the officer claims...
...Americans found a useful ally in Jameel Yusuf, head of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). An energetic, well-heeled businessman, Yusuf formed the committee in the early 1990s when Karachi was stricken by several kidnappings and murders a day. "It was turning into a city of death," he says. By setting up a data bank and electronic surveillance of criminals, Yusuf and a few honest cops managed to bust many of the major kidnapping gangs. These criminals were often linked to cells of sectarian killers and terrorists. "They all steal cars and buy and sell illegal weapons," Yusuf says...
...With the FBI's help in monitoring cell-phone calls and e-mails, Yusuf was able to throw an electronic net over the Karachi neighborhoods where terrorists and some of Pearl's kidnappers lurked. "Al-Qaeda isn't like a social club," he says. "They don't have a posted membership list." What he did find was a link between al-Qaeda and two virulent Sunni sectarian groups?Lashkar Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad?which had trained in Afghan camps alongside Osama bin Laden's holy warriors. The two groups, in turn, were mixed up in the Karachi underworld. Often...