ONE had wished that the troublemakers in Karachi would respect the sanctity of the month of Ramazan and at least, temporarily, refrain from disturbing the peace. Sadly, however, the city seems to once again have reverted to violence and bloodshed. The present round of turmoil has been sparked by the death of a son of a local religious leader. A clear pattern has emerged from these target killings, which should give police and rangers sufficient clue to identify the actual killers in order to bring them to justice. The culprits are actually trying to create conditions for the sectarian and ethnic strife to break out by targeting important religious personalities and members of certain ethnic communities, to create a dangerous divide between the various groups. That is why we see prominent leaders of political groups and sects falling prey to the scourge of target killings. The gunmen seem to be quite skilled; in most cases, they ambush or fire from a safe distance with the help of sophisticated weapons and are easily able to run away to their safe houses. Apparently, those creating unrest in Karachi are doing so in order to destabilise Pakistan and on this count we ought to watch out for the external forces. But also, it is incumbent upon the political groups to exercise restraint. The way they have been accusing each other of instigating violence would serve no useful purpose other than showing to the public that they hardly deserve to govern. To a very large extent, if these parties learn to live in peaceful co-existence and mutual harmony, Karachi could turn into a city of lights it once was. The police and rangers need to get sophisticated technology to fight crime. Reportedly, not only the forensic department of the police is in a shambles, but they also lack the basic equipment like phone trackers, that is considered standard tools to track criminals. It is high time the outdated methods of fighting crime were replaced with modern ones.