Salman Siddiqui's writing archive

By Salman Siddiqui   A father and son duo who work as post mortem specialists recall Karachi’s violent history which they have together literally dissected over the last 50 years.  Saleem Karachi: When Saleem digs in his blade into a gunshot victim, his hand doesn’t shiver. He says he blocks out all his thoughts so that he can focus on his mission to retrieve the bullet, which according to instructions handed out to him, he must at all costs. As the on going violence in the city spirals out of control, there are people like Saleem, whose workload literally increase with the death toll of the day. Working at the mortuary as an attendant for the last 16 years, his job is to preserve the evidence of injuries to the victims no matter what the nature of incident might be. It could be poisoning, accident, homicide or bomb blast case. But whenever a body turns up on his table, he must work like a robot. Although illiterate, he will tell you the names of each bone and organ in...

By Salman Siddiqui This story published on Dawn.com on Feb 5, 2010, was my first real close shave with death. I was at the hospital area when the second blast took place and only minutes before it went off I had interviewed the humanitarian Edhi at the exact sane spot it exploded. Everytime I think of this day I feel quite bewildered and lucky that nothing happened to me, at least physically. Unfortunately there were many young men like me who were not so fortunate and died in that senseless violence. Here's my report from that day which I had to do file asap following my own harrowing experience.   Edhi just minutes before the second blast outside the Jinnah hospital in Karachi on Friday Karachi: On Friday, an explosion in Karachi targeted Shia mourners on their way to a Chehlum procession. A second blast hit the main public hospital where causalities from the first blast were being taken. According to agencies, the latest death toll is 25, while nearly 100 people were wound...

By Salman Siddiqui The Gadani Ship Breaking Yard in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province hosts one of the most beautiful untouched beaches on earth where handsome men from the country's north come not to enjoy the waters but to blacken their skin through back-breaking hard labor. This is their story. Gadani: When 55-year-old Gul Rehman says he has been working at the Gadani Ship breaking yard since Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s reign in the 70s when he was just 16 years old, it is hard to believe him. Not because one would have a doubt about his ‘39 year work experience.’ But because of the smile he continues to have despite the back breaking labour work the man from Peshawar continues to do. Even more surprising is the fact that his 20 year old son Habib too has joined him in this hardcore line of work. “I wanted him to study and be a big man, but he just wouldn’t listen,” said Rehman. “I find studying harder than this work,” said Habib behind his father’s back, who already ...

Fossils of Baluchitherium are believed to have become collateral in the 2006 military operation against the late Nawab Akbar Bugti in Pakistan. By Salman Siddiqui KARACHI: The scorched, dusty hills of Dera Bugti held invaluable treasure that could have made the world a richer place. That treasure, however, may have been destroyed in a military operation in 2006. Besides the Baloch chieftain, Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was targeted and killed in the operation, another great casualty was the fossilised remains of the largest mammal that walked the earth – Baluchitherium. The discovery of the first, almost-complete skeleton of the mammal was made by a team of French scientists in 1999. Thirteen years later, they fear that their discovery, packed into containers at Bugti’s mansion, may have been lost. Continued military control of the region, however, ensures that there is no way to find out if the fossils, that hold invaluable information about the world as it existed millions of years ...

I did an expoze on wiretapping in Pakistan for which I had to face some heat back in 2010.  By Salman Siddiqui It’s an irony Benazir Bhutto would have appreciated. Much of the ‘evidence’ that poisoned her voters, brought down her govt and even became the justification for her husband’s conviction was culled from wiretaps. Now again in 2010 wiretaps are being conducted while the PPP’s in govt. Surveillance:  Finding Orwell in Pakistan Karachi: It’s an irony slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto would have appreciated. Much of the ‘evidence’ that poisoned her voters, brought down her second government and even became the justification for her husband’s conviction was culled from wiretaps. Fast forward to 2010 and perhaps the most invasive wiretaps by federal intelligence agencies in recorded history are also being conducted while the PPP’s in government. When Benazir challenged the dissolution of her government, the Supreme Court devoted several pages of its judgement to t...