Target killings? Malik points to role of wives, girlfriends

Islamabad, Jul 14: After initially pointing fingers at the Taliban, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has come out with a bizarre theory on the raging violence in Karachi, blaming "wives and girlfriends" for 70 per cent of the killings in the city where ethnic and political rivalries have claimed scores of lives.

In comments that were ridiculed all over the media, Malik told reporters during an interaction in Quetta that more people had been killed by those who wanted to get rid of their wives, girlfriends and boyfriends than those responsible for "target killings" in Karachi.

He was responding to a question on the killing of more than 150 people in recent clashes in the port city.

"According to my personal experience in Karachi, if, let's say, it is said that 100 people have died in target killings, when I did the investigation, I found that there were only 30 target killings," Malik said.

"Seventy per cent were those people who wanted to be rid of their wives and girlfriends or girlfriends who wanted to be rid of their boyfriends. All the figures are with me, they killed them," he added.

The Interior Minister's comments invited ridicule of TV talk show hosts and users of popular micro-blogging website Twitter, who posted the video footage in which Malik was seen making the remarks.

Dunya News channel, in a report posted on its website, said: "However, one fails to understand if the Interior Minister knows this much, what is stopping him from taking meaningful action".

PTI