By Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Despite the intensified campaign by police authorities, the number of unsolved killings in the Pakistani commercial hub of Karachi has gone up and this could seriously affect the city's economy.
Reports said that in most cases, the authorities have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
A shocking incident occurred in Karachi last week in which one unidentified gunman fatally shot four brothers who were inside their car in what was reported as a sectarian-motivated attack.
A day later a father and son were also killed apparently in revenge attack. These are just two of many unsolved murder cases in the country's largest and multi-ethnic city.
Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, has had a long history of sectarian, ethnic and political violence. Most killings in the city are done by feuding political parties, and sectarian and ethnic groups fighting each other. And the trend is getting worse.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), nearly 1,700 people were killed in Karachi between January and August 2012.
The report shows that at least 1,345 of these murders were politically-motivated, a dramatic increase from last year. The police said that the 1,244 killings between January and July 2012 were all politically- motivated.
The police data show that there were 60 sectarian killings between January and August 2012, which targeted both the minority Shias and majority Sunnis.
Political, ethnic and sectarian killings get more media attention in Pakistan. But gang wars, drug trafficking and land- grabbing are also among the causes of killings in the city.
Pakistani officials said that aside from sectarian and political killings, some murders are the result of personal grudges. The unreported killings of almost five to ten daily have raised serious concern among the residents since they affect business activities in the city of about 20 million people.
In fact, there are some reports that because of the crime situation in the city, some known businessmen, including foreign investors, have already decided to move to other countries or to other locations within Pakistan.
Karachi is deeply divided on political and ethnic grounds which have made the situation more complex.
Analysts said that Pakistani authorities, including national and local ones, should act now to find a solution to this peace and order problem and put all the perpetrators behind bars before they can further harm the city's economy.
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