KARACHI, Jan 13 Abdul Rehman Baloch, better known as Rehman Dakait for his reported role in the deadly Lyari gang warfare, is stated to be edging his way into politics. As a first step, efforts are being made to bring about a lasting truce between him and his rival gangster, Arshad Pappu, it has emerged.

Last week the heads of the two Lyari gangs agreed to put their long-running and blood-drenched feud behind them.

The gang warfare, triggered by the murder of transporter Mama Faizu in 2002, is said to have claimed hundreds of lives Rehman Dakait

of the common people, policemen and gang members. Several children have also fallen victim to battles erupting intermittently over the years.

A provincial leader of the Pakistan People's Party has written to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah seeking a general amnesty for PPP workers of Lyari, insisting that criminal cases against party workers and sympathisers are mostly politically motivated.

Well-placed sources told Dawn that efforts to work out a settlement between the two gangs began last year, and for the last six months the matter had progressed to such an extent that both sides had agreed to sit across the table and talk it over.

Balochistan National Party Arshad Pappu

(BNP) Chairman Akhtar Mengal is also said to have played a crucial role in bringing the two sides to the negotiating table. It was during his incarceration in the Central Prison Karachi, when Haji Lalu, father of Arshad Pappu, wrote to Mr Mengal describing the cause of the differences between the two warring gang leaders and requesting him to play his role in ending the bloodshed in Lyari.

The sources said serious efforts for reconciliation were made during the last six months when local leaders helped initiate talks behind the scenes and demanded a pardon for the elements involved in the Lyari gang warfare.

MNA Nabil Gabol and MPA Rafiq Engineer continued their efforts to make the two groups begin negotiations and tried to convince them that a surrender before the authorities would be a better option for them.

Sources in the government said that in the next phase the two groups were expected to make their armed comrades surrender. However, residents doubt that both sides would be willing to press ahead to such an extent to make the reconciliation process work.

A provincial leader of the PPP, Habib Jan, has written a letter to the Sindh chief minister demanding a general amnesty for party workers and sympathisers in Lyari who, according to him, have been implicated in “false and fabricated criminal cases”.

In his letter, he explained that a number of politically motivated cases were registered against PPP sympathisers by the dictatorial regime that needed to be dealt with in an independent and transparent manner.

In his letter, Mr Jan said the vision of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto about amnesty in the form of the NRO (national reconciliation order) had played a vital role in bringing the PPP back into national politics. He further said in his letter that PPP workers from Lyari, most of them being from the underprivileged strata of society, were implicated in various criminal cases. He also said that cases under Section 324 of the PPC and other non-compoundable and cognizable matters where evidence was required should be disposed of.

The sources said that the contents of the letters lent credence to the view that Abdul Rehman Baloch harboured political ambitions and was determined to cast off his unnecessary alias “Dakait”.

Sources in Lyari were of the view that Rehman alias Dakait commanded respect in his neighbourhood for his “Robin Hood character”. For instance, in Lyari's Afshani Gali, where Rehman's house is situated, graffiti from the last general election may still be seen in support of PPP candidates contesting from Lyari, courtesy “Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch”.

“It's a fact that candidates who contested the last general election from Lyari on PPP tickets could have faced difficulty in winning the seats if they hadn't enjoyed Rehman's support,” a senior party worker, requesting anonymity, conceded.

The sources said that in the next phase of the reconciliation process, a meeting between Rehman and Arshad Pappu was expected to take place, but reports suggest that Rehman is reluctant to shake hands with Pappu, who is lodged in the Central Prison of Karachi.

They also suggested that the stakeholders involved in the reconciliation process might arrange a “neutral place” where the two men might sit and talk to iron out their differences.

Even some government functionaries are of the strong opinion that only a settlement between the two groups could end the long-running conflict, otherwise if for instance they are arrested, this conflict would be passed on to the next generation.

But if extra legal measures are taken to work out a settlement between the two gangs, the writ of the government could become questionable, observed an officer of a law-enforcement agency.