Conflict dynamics in Karachi

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and financial capital, is also wracked by ethnopolitical, sectarian, militant, and criminal violence that has claimed more than 7,000 lives since 2008. The city's precarious security situation has serious implications for the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship owing to its growing role in national and regional terrorism. This report analyzes the city's multiple and intersecting types of violence, identifies violent actors, highlights the systemic issues that drive violence, examines state initiatives to stem violence and reasons why these efforts failed, and calls for the government to tackle the violence's underlying causes.