Karachi is in the grip of violent incidents the likes of which we have not seen in many years. Innocent people including little children are dying and the horrific thing is that some of the children that are dying are being killed by their own parents.
There were one after the other two incidents in which in the first place a father killed his two sons and shortly after this incident a mother killed her children in the most horrible way.
The first incident occurred at the famous Do Darya near Sea View where a man jumped into the sea with two young children.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing the man, believed to be around 40 years old, throw the children, aged 7-8, into the water before jumping in himself. The second incident was even more horrible. A 37-year-old woman slaughtered her two young children in Defence Housing Authority.
The children were eight and four years old. This was due to a marital issue between the husband and wife. The bodies of the innocent young children were recovered with their throats slit. It was not just the despicable act but the lack of remorse and indeed gloating over her shameful act that stunned everyone. After this horrible act the woman in question sent pictures of the slain children to her husband the father of the children.
Such acts which were not so common in the past or were not reported are universally termed as Filicide and are responsible for the murder of young children. In USA for example 450 children are murdered each year by their parents. Most of the perpetrators of these crimes are mental patients. An in-depth study of 297 cases convicted of filicide and 45 of filicide-suicide in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2006 showed that 37% of the perpetrators had a recorded mental illness at the time.
In a research on filicide carried out in 1969 by Dr Phillip Resnick it was stated that there were five main motives for filicide, including “altruistic”, “fatal maltreatment”, “unwanted child”, “acutely psychotic” and “spousal revenge”. “Altruistic” killings occur because the parent believes that the world is too cruel for the child, or because the child is enduring suffering (whether this is actually occurring or not). In fatal maltreatment killings, the goal is not always to kill the child, but death may occur anyway. Spousal revenge killings are killings of children done to indirectly harm a domestic partner; a case in point is the murder of two children in DHA in Karachi.
Mental health in Pakistan is not a priority subject as already there is not enough space or resources to treat traditional ailments. This is in spite of the fact that there are an estimated 45.5 million people in Pakistan who suffer from mental disorders, yet a large majority of them do not receive treatment.
Factors like societal stigma, lack of awareness, and a shortage of mental health professionals and facilities contribute to this treatment gap. Some spotlight is thrown on this subject when incidents like the ones in Karachi draw attention of authorities but then again there is more emphasis on the criminal rather than the mental or social circumstances.
In the middle of this spate of filicides there were also the mounting casualties on the streets of Karachi brought on by recklessly driven heavy duty vehicles that seemed to be on a killing spree. Young and old couples were mowed down and in some cases the people gathered could not control their anger and frustration at these frequently occurring accidents and decided to take the law in their own hands.
Dumpers were burned and water tankers set on fire creating a law and order situation. In one of the accidents the driver was arrested and his testimonials checked to reveal that he did not have the required license to drive the kind of vehicle he was driving. This will probably turn out to be true for most of those driving heavy duty vehicles in Karachi. In some cases it is not just drivers but cleaners who are in the driving seat.
In between filicides and street accidents in Karachi the young and old in Karachi are under constant threat. Only an organized effort can save us from future such incidents and that seems rather remote in the present circumstances.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a well-known columnist