Karachi had become the largest wheat-exporting port in the East
Recorded crimes sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, ethnic and Religious militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers.
(pakistantravelerspk)The British East India Company captured Karachi on 3 February 1839 after HMS Wellesley opened fire and quickly destroyed the local mud fort at Manora.The town was annexed to British India in 1843. Later a large part Sindh region was captured by Major General Charles James Napier after the victory in the Battle of Miani, and the city was declared capital of the newly formed Sindh province.
The city was recognized for its strategic importance, prompting the British to establish the Port of Karachi in 1854. Karachi rapidly became a transportation hub for British India owing to newly built port and rail infrastructure, as well as the increase in agricultural exports from the opening of productive tracts of newly irrigated land in Punjab and interior Sindh.The British also developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison to aid the British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the 21st Native Infantry, then stationed in Karachi, mutinied and declared allegiance to rebel forces in September 1857, though the British were able to quickly defeat the rebels and reassert control over the city. Following the Rebellion, British colonial administrators continued to develop the city. In 1864, the first telegraphic message was sent from South Asia to England from Karachi.Public building works were undertaken, including the construction of Frere Hall in 1865 and the later Empress Market. In 1878, the British Raj connected Karachi with the network of British India's vast railway system.
By 1899, Karachi had become the largest wheat-exporting port in the East.British development projects in Karachi resulted in an influx of economic migrants from several ethnicities and religions, including Anglo-British, Parsis, Marathis, and Goan Christians, among others. Karachi's newly arrived Jewish population established the city's first synagogue in 1893.Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in Karachi's Wazir Mansion in 1876 to migrants from Gujarat. By the end of the 19th century, Karachi's population was estimated to be 105,000.Under British rule, the city's municipal government was established. Known as the Father of Modern Karachi, mayor Seth Harchandrai Vishandas led the municipal government to improve sanitary conditions in the Old City, as well as major infrastructure works in the New Town after his election in 1911.The city first developed around the Karachi Harbour, and owes much of its growth to its role as a seaport at the end of the 18th century,contrasted with Pakistan's millennia-old cities such as Lahore, Multan, and Peshawar. Karachi's Mithadar neighbourhood represents the extent of Kolachi prior to British rule.
British Karachi was divided between the "New Town" and the "Old Town," with British investments focused primarily in the New Town. The Old Town was a largely unplanned neighborhood which housed most of the city's indigenous residents, and had no access to sewerage systems, electricity, and water.The New Town was subdivided into residential, commercial, and military areas.Given the strategic value of the city, the British developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison in the New Town to aid the British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.At the dawn of independence following the success of the Pakistan Movement in 1947, Karachi was Sindh's largest city with a population of over 400,000.Despite communal violence across India and Pakistan, Karachi remained relatively peaceful compared to cities further north in Punjab.The city became the focus for the resettlement of Muslim Muhajirs migrating from India, leading to a dramatic expansion of the city's population. This migration lasted until the 1960s.This immigration ultimately transformed the city's demographics and economy.
Karachi was selected as the first capital of Pakistan and served as such until the capital was shifted to Rawalpindi in 1958.While foreign embassies shifted away from Karachi, the city is host to numerous consulates and honorary consulates. Between 1958 and 1970, Karachi's role as capital of Sindh was ceased due to the One Unit programme enacted by President Iskander Mirza.Karachi of the 1960s was regarded as an economic role model around the world, with Seoul, South Korea borrowing from the city's second "Five-Year Plan.The 1970s saw major labour struggles in Karachi's industrial estates. The 1980s and 1990s saw an influx of thousands of Afghan refugees from the Soviet–Afghan War into Karachi; who were in turn followed in smaller numbers by refugees escaping from post-revolution Iran.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Karachi was rocked by political conflict, while crime rates drastically increased with the arrival of weaponry from the War in Afghanistan. Conflict between the Muhajir’s, and ethnic Sindhis, Pashtuns, and Punjabis was sharp.MQM and its vast Public network of supporters were targeted by Pakistani security forces as part of the controversial Operation Clean-up in 1992 – an effort to restore peace in the city that lasted until 1994. Anti-Hindu riots also broke out in Karachi in 1992 in retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Mosque in India by a group of Hindu nationalists earlier that year. Karachi had become widely known for its high rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, ethnic and Religious militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers.
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