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I was fortunate to have spent a year or so in Pakistan helping launch Easypaisa - one of the biggest mobile banking deployments globally at the time.
I was told I was lucky to survive my first day without getting shot - I hung out on Karachi beach with the locals on National day which apparently made me a huge target for theft or kidnapping.
While I was in Islamabad the Taliban took over the military headquarters, the city was bombed a few times, and I spent one day in Karachi moving between safe houses as rival gangs took to shooting each other in the streets.
My wife is half Indian - we had to hide her identity when she visited (we went with "Persian").
The country was one of amazing contrasts. Kindness and terror, beauty (natural) and ugliness (man made).
I say "fortunate" because of the (a) new perspectives gained while being there; (b) having the pleasure of working with some of the brightest and hard-working people I have ever worked with; (c) being part of a project that has helped empower tens of millions of people.
The most beautiful place I ever went in over 40 countries I have visited was the foothills of K2 mountains, and watching a Polo match at the birth place of Polo in Baltistan (despite my Indian wife and I being surrounded by 15000 men chanting "Death to India" while war raged on in the SWAT valley a few hundred km's away).
A last footnote. Pakistan has been in the middle of so many proxy wars and have such a crazy history that most people I met have woven together the fabric of truth and fantasy to create some of the most amazing conspiracy theories you could ever imagine.
Depends which beach? While there is genuine danger, they might have been playing that up for you with respect to that particular location....I will point out that in 2000, they had a lower murder rate than Chicago, thanks to the excellent work of the CPLC.
I'm shocked you had to hide her identity in Karachi - usually there and Punjab are welcoming of visiting Indians, esp. if they're your wife
I forget which beach. I am glad that it is relatively safe now.
My first visit was 2006. On my return visits in 2008/9 I was accompanied by security who were probably over-protective as well.
As far as my wife is concerned, we travelled a lot throughout Pakistan - perhaps we were too cautious - although we did come up against a lot of anti-Indian sentiment. We found attitudes vary a lot from place to place about a lot of things, and this is no different.
I remember a well educated guy I knew telling me that he stopped going to the Wagga border post near Lahore for fear that he would throw a rock at the Indian border guards in the heat of the moment...
Being a born Karachiite I don't agree with the tone of the article, it's giving feeling it's more dangerous than FATA area of Pakistan which is definitely not. Here markets remain open late night, people stay with their friend and families on road on weekends. Just last week I had a wonderful 'Sea View' trip and it was marvelous. The guy behind `Humans of New York` recently made a trip of Pakistan including Karachi.
In short, Karachi is not part of Afghanistan and you may have a wonderful time here. Here crime rate is no larger than any other mega city in the world.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/951511/crime-rate-in-karachi-fal...
> News tickers revealed which gates the army was entering from, where police were situated, and which areas were being cordoned off. Inside the airport, the militants were keeping up with the TV updates and adjusting their positions accordingly. “I accept this is the wrong thing,” Hyder said later, with a guilty laugh. “But what can I do? It’s my work.”
Hey, the militants must've also accepted they were doing the wrong thing, but what can they do? It's their job. /sarcasm
Great job for strengthening the terrorists' position. The good guys in the government and police are trying to combat the insurgency, and these leeches are undermining that effort.
This is what happened in the Mumbai attacks in 2007 too, the media was giving away every single thing happening outside.
It was also a problem during the siege at the 1972 Munich Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre#Negotiations
That's the free market: competition between different media agencies and no government regulation.
No that's journalists not behaving ethically - just because your a hack doesn't mean you can shout fire in the crowded theatre.
And of course they are now on ISI, SIS and the CIA's watch list.
I live in Karachi. Please pray that I escape this city.
Is daily life that bad? I just had a look at Wikitravel and it sounded pretty nice. I was expecting warnings and stuff after reading this (like you get when reading about Mogadishu for example).
The totally unpredictable strikes (good luck trying to catch a flight at the airport during one, let alone do your daily shopping), roving extortion gangs, and torrential floods during monsoon complete with downed electric wires can be a bit of a drag.
(My mother's side of the family lives there, mother was born there and it's the address on my Pakistani identity card. I visit every other year.)
No it's not that bad. Most places in city are like some areas of New York city more or less in terms of security. Surprisingly, people are more helpful and friendly in Karachi than in NYC.
says the guy ... anyways :P
Did you read the OP?
Yes, "after reading this" referred to the OP.
A little dated, but with many of the same characters (including a show-stealing appearance by now-jailed Uzair Baloch) is the "VICE Guide to Karachi" on YouTube. The Pakistani co-founder of VICE has some political connections, hence his ability to do interviews willy-nilly.
NB: The mustachioed policeman in the series, Chaudhry Aslam, was assassinated by a car bomb early last year.
Uzair Baloch skipped bail in Dubai a few months ago and disappeared, likely to Afghanistan where he apparently has warlord friends.
One wonders whether he has a empty pool to show off again
I wonder what role optimization algorithms can play in reducing crime rates. The police are under staffed, but can those minimal resources be used for maximum output in terms of safety?
>> the last two killed themselves by detonating their suicide vests.
Couldn't they take off the vests and detonate them, without blowing themselves up?
Not only would they generally prefer 'martyrdom' to capture, they're often locked in the vests. Survival is not a priority for these kinds of operations.
The airport was sealed: the only options were suicide or capture by the police, and both options were almost certainly lethal.
I hear things are on the mend with the rangers operation. Soon (hopefully) Karachi will return to its former glory.