Terror's Urban Jungle : Pakistan's problems are visibly concentrated in its lawless commercial capital, Karachi. Can anyone stop the rot?(War on Terrorism)(Brief Article)(Illustration)

The tragedy of 9-11 brought home the danger posed by failing states like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where poverty, chaos and corruption formed petri dishes for would-be radicals. Now Pakistan's largest city and commercial capital--the sprawling port of Karachi, teeming with 14 million people--is highlighting the danger posed by failing cities, where the same combination of factors may prove even more destabilizing.

Since their Taliban allies were ousted in Afghanistan, Qaeda terrorists have infiltrated Karachi, making the city--already known for ethnic, sectarian and political violence--one of the epicenters of the war on terror. At Karachi International Airport, banks of video cameras now watch every arriving and departing passenger. The cameras and new immigration computers are both linked to the U.S. FBI, so that American agents can quickly check faces and names against lists of wanted terrorists. Pakistani Army Rangers, dressed in flak jackets and carrying automatic weapons, guard foreign consultants. (The U.S. consulate was closed in August for security reasons.) Several intersections are little more than sandbagged bunkers manned by heavily armed cops. Cars entering hotel and office parking lots are checked for bombs. Rangers even roam the campus of the University of Karachi.

Even by Karachi standards, this has been a bloody year. In late September two gunmen entered the office of the Institute for Peace and Justice, a largely Christian-run human-rights group, and killed seven people, methodically shooting them with pistols. Pakistani authorities believe the executions--the sixth terrorist attack on Christians in Pakistan since last October--are the work of the Islamic extremist group Harkat-ul Mujahideen Al-Almi, which intelligence sources in Karachi say may be linked to Al Qaeda. In January U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi and killed. In May a car laden with explosives detonated alongside a Pakistan Navy bus, which was sitting in traffic near the Sheraton Hotel. The explosion killed 11 French naval technicians and three Pakistanis. In June a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed car into the wall of the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 Pakistanis. Last month Pakistani security forces engaged in a four-hour firefight with Qaeda operatives who were holed up in a ...