The title above sounds really bad doesnt it? But for me last friday night it was a rude awakening that life is fragile and not to take your security for granted especially when you're in a foreign country.
Before i give you my own personal incident of what happened to me... here's a news report so you can understand what happened to me in Karachi.
KARACHI, May 12 — At least 27 people were killed and more than 100 injured in Karachi on Saturday in some of its worst political violence in years, Pakistani officials said.
Dozens of vehicles were set afire today in Karachi, Pakistan, as competing rallies over the suspension of a judge turned violent, leaving at least 17 people dead.
The clashes were set off by the arrival of Pakistan’s suspended Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who had come to Karachi to address lawyers of the Sindh High Court Bar Association but was unable to leave the airport after his arrival around noon.
Gunfire began immediately, and dozens of vehicles were set on fire. Smoke rose from at least four areas of the city, where competing rallies had been scheduled by members of the pro-government political party in power in Karachi and supporters of the judge. Armed groups from both camps exchanged fire.
Pakistan has been roiled in a growing legal and political crisis since President Pervez Musharraf suspended Mr. Chaudhry in March, accusing him of misuse of power and nepotism. He denies the charges, and his supporters say they are politically motivated. At a state-sponsored rally in Karachi Saturday evening, General Musharraf addressed a crowd from behind a bulletproof screen, saying that his “heart was bleeding” when he saw television coverage of the violence in Karachi but that a judicial issue had become inappropriately politicized. And he warned opponents trying to capitalize on the situation: “Do not challenge us. We are not cowards like you, we have the power of the people.”
Karachi, the country’s business and commercial hub, has a history of sectarian and political violence. The Muttahida Quami Movement, the party that controls the city government, is allied with the president.
In the worst violence, supporters of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and activists from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto fought gun battles for an hour.
The private Aaj TV channel showed pictures of its office under fire. "We are under attack," said journalist Talat Hussain on air, sheltering behind a wall. "We have seen no security force. No-one has come to help us." Reporters from the Associated Press news agency said they saw five bodies lying in the street, four next to a car which had been raked with gunfire. At least 20 vehicles were set on fire in the violence, AP said. "It is state-sponsored terrorism. The Sindh [province] government is responsible but we are not going to back off," said Sherry Rehman of the PPP.
In the days before the competing rallies in Karachi, the authorities arrested hundreds of opposition activists and deployed more than 15,000 security personnel. A holiday was declared, and all roads leading to the airport, the provincial High Court and the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, were blocked overnight, creating massive traffic jams.
Water tankers, trailers, vans with deflated tires and containers were placed at intersections of Faisal Avenue, a main artery of the city.
Now here's Al's take on what happened. But of course pictures does say a thousand words...
A monstrous 500,000 people came out to rally!
So you saw the pictures right? Well maybe right now i'm painting like a really horrible picture and in all honesty it wasnt that mad for me.
What happened was on friday night before the rally, my Pakistani retailer told me that there may be closure of roads to the airport on Saturday so they suggested that i booked the airport hotel and stay there on friday night so that i can make it to my flight on saturday evening. So at around 11 something we took off from Sheraton (in the city) and headed towards the airport.
No one expected it that night but the roads to the airport was completely closed. The police used barricades and their police cars to block the road to the airport without offering alternative solutions to get there. So then my James Bond of a retailer that drove both me and my boss took matters into his own hands and started to find other back roads to get to the airport. Oh my gawd! He drove like a mad man...driving AGAINST traffic...yeap you read that right...he drove on the wrong side of the road with opposing traffic coming at us....we were caught from one jam to another and somehow or another he ignore all rules of the road and drove in whichever direction that he pleased...well other pakistanis were doing it as well...
Now came the scary part...on one part of our journey we were on the back road of the airport...you could see the airport but what seperated us from getting there were fences and buses that blocked our way. So our car which was the size of a kancil was caught in a massive jam in a kuci little back road and all round us were hundreds of men with sticks!! Just like the picture above. So can you imagine the fear that was in us? Imagine if one person were to get angry at another person and started to argue or to fight...the entire mob would react and we'll probably get caught in the crossfire. But thank God nothing happened.
The mob was still pretty cool at that point...getting ready and planning their strategy to block the Chief Justice from getting to Karachi. Anyway, by some miracle or another... our retailer managed to squeeze and manevour his way out of the jam and back up until we were clear and out of the mob and out of harms way. Dont ask me how that happened but through God's grace we did. After 3 hours, we managed to get back to our original hotel which is Sheraton safely.
Now knowing me you guys will know that there is always a comedic aspect to this whole fiasco. Throughout my ordeal in the car, i was in a state where i had food poisoning. Yea yeahh i know i'm the Queen of Food Poisoning. So when i was in the car and in that situation, the only thing i could think was...."Please Al...hold your shit in and dont freakin low saiii man"...i tell you i tahan my shitt like crazy until i developed a fever in the car. You know how it is when you hold in your shitt...its super san foo and there will be times when your stomach is ok but then later its like a knife pierces through your tummy and your ass telling you that you gotta hit the loo. So anyway, that was all i worried about! hehehe...so yea yeah...laugh away....
So now its really nice to be back home in Singapore. Its the first time that i'm really thankful to be in Singapore.
Whats the lesson learnt?
We're so fortunate that we live in a country and land that is peaceful. I mean Pakistan especially Karachi has tons of rallies but then its never been violent even the local pakistanis were shocked that violence broke. Anyway, back to the lesson learnt. Be thankful for the life you have and the country you live in and pray for those people out there who have to go through live on a normal scale with guns shooting over their head, worry when their houses will be bombed and live life of never knowing when their country will ever achieve peace.
