Organized crime networks mainly operate in the city鈥檚 labyrinthine district of Orangi, considered to be biggest slum in South Asia, and Lyari district, which has been center stage to the recent violence, as well as other adjoining areas with populations in the millions. Equipped with automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and GPS technologies, these groups have made neighborhoods inaccessible even for police.
In addition to serving political and ethnic parties, organized gangs extort money from private business. 鈥淲e do business in a death trap. We get threatening phone calls and are sent warning notes,鈥� says Siddiq Memon of the local group Chairman Traders Action Committee. 鈥淭hey extort money worth 50 million rupees [$575,000] a day from the traders in Karachi.鈥�
According to an estimate, the monthly turnover of Karachi鈥檚 extortion rackets is $15 million a month, excluding accelerating bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom.
Police officials say several Taliban militants were arrested recently for bank robberies and kidnappings. 鈥淜arachi is like Wall Street for all the militant groups and mafias,鈥� says Prof. Tauseef Ahmed, an analyst.
