Taliban exploits ethnic violence in Karachi- raises cash, find refuge

The ongoing bloodbath in Karachi is helping the Taliban to raise cash and allowing their fighters to rest in Pakistan’s largest city, a British newspaper reported.

The worst tension in recent weeks has been between the Urdu-speaking majority and Pashto-speaking migrants from the tribal regions of Pakistan. Over 300 people were murdered in Karachi last month. Extortion, drug, land and weapon mafias are bankrolling the insurgents, while fighters and commanders use the city to rest and gain medical treatment, according to political parties. 

The violence has created no-go areas in which Taliban fighters and commanders can operate with almost total impunity, Fox News quoted security officials, as telling The Times of London.

Although there is no chance of the Taliban seizing the whole of Karachi, it is acting with greater impunity within pockets that it controls. “This place is going to turn into Beirut,” said Shahi Syed, president of the ANP. “It’s dividing on ethnic grounds. We are in a dangerous position.”