What really happened in Karachi’s Qasba Colony massacre of 1986

The Qasba Colony-Aligarh massacre of 1986 remains one of the most haunting and defining tragedies in Karachi’s history.

Set against a backdrop of rising political and ethnic tensions, the violence followed a turbulent year marked by MQM’s mass rallies, the firing at a Hyderabad gathering and the Sohrab Goth operation.

Drawing on survivor accounts, contemporary journalistic reporting, and insights from MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi, the report reconstructs how fear, unrest and a chain of volatile events spiraled into one of the city’s darkest chapters.