This Guy Kept Calm While Gunfire Close to Karachi’s Recently Attacked Airport Rattled Pakistan · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Security forces conducting a wide search operation after three-four people open fire at the Airport Security Force academy. Image by ppiimages. Copyright Demotix (10/6/2014)
Two days after a deadly Taliban attack claimed 36 lives at Karachi's Jinnah International, reports of “another round of gunfire” close to Pakistan's busiest airport rattled Pakistanis on social media and sent residents in the country's security-strained city into a panic, almost instantly.
But Jawad Nazir, a 25-year-old volunteer running an unofficial Twitter account for Pakistan's top air traffic authority, tried to keep everyone calm.
While chatting with me on Twitter he said, “I just think defusing tension at times [like these] and taking all the criticism can also keep people calm.”
After speculative tweets and reports about “gunfire at the airport, again” started spreading on Twitter and Pakistan's vibrant but frantic TV news channels, Jawad, a college student, volunteer wilderness trainer and social entrepreneur based in Rawalpindi city, tweeted this from the unofficial “Civil Aviation Authority Pakistan” (@AirportPakistan) account:
#Jinnah Airport is safe, #ASF academy is under attack. Please remain calm and patient, will be updating you accordingly.
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 10, 2014
Later he reported from the same account:
Flight operations at #Jinnah International Airport are SUSPENDED.
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 10, 2014
The reported gunfire was from 3-4 people who allegedly opened fire at the Airport Security Force Academy and ran away. The training academy is a few miles from Karachi's Airport, which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had finally cleared for travel less than 24 hours before, following a brazen 6-hour battle between security forces and militants in the early hours of June 9.
Within a few hours of the reports of shooting, Pakistan's chief military spokesman tweeted:
#Kci Airport:Latest update;3 to 4 terrorists fired near ASF Camp,ran away.No breach of fence,no Entry.Chase is on,situation under control
— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) June 10, 2014
The situation seemed to have settled within an hour, after which the Taliban claimed responsibility for the firing. With this latest attack at the airport, however, rumours continued on Pakistan's social media, following the authorities’ decision to suspend air travel temporarily and put security blocks on roads close to the airport:
All roads leading to #KarachiAirport sealed. (Via @JaagAlerts)
— Karachi Traffic Upd (@KhiTraffic) June 10, 2014
Within 40 minutes of the “flight operations suspended” notice, @AirportPakistan tweeted:
Operations resume at #Jinnah International of #Karachi.
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 10, 2014
One Twitter user angrily responded:
Dear @alijawadnaqvi, understand your concern but my job is to only pass on the transmitted information. @asmashirazi
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 10, 2014
Karachi-based journalist Omar Quereshi tweeted:
Civil Aviation Authority is as good on Twitter @AirportPakistan as it is bad in real life — and that's saying a lot
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) June 9, 2014
I got in touch with the man behind @AirportPakistan Jawad Nazir, who kept things calm on Twitter and he agreed to answer a few of my questions quickly because he had an exam in 5 hours.
Jawad is also a volunteer wilderness trainer with Youth Impact. Photo from Jawad's Public Facebook page.
I asked him why he runs the account on his own time and money, and he replied, “My motivation for this account is to ensure some decent image of Pakistan globally. We are already not in a very good book of foreigners :(“. He continued:
I've seen major international airports tweeting to their passengers on a daily basis, so I thought ‘why not from Pakistan?’ So I started back in January this year, by updating delays and cancellations of flights on a daily basis.
He continued about his response to the 6-hour Karachi Airport siege:
Now in this situation of the attack I was expecting people to storm their questions towards the CAA account so despite my exam on Monday morning, I stayed up all night long answering people and trying to defuse the situation. It did work, and I also kept people informed about the [latest updates].
Jawad has college degrees in journalism and political science, and is working on another degree in business administration. The journalism degree clearly helps him sift through misinformation and maintain a neutral tone. After the Karachi airport attack had ended and rescue operations were still underway for trapped employees of a cargo company, he tweeted:
Ladies & Gentleman, please remain calm & patient. Rescue efforts are in progress at the cold storage for past couple of hours. #Karachi
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 9, 2014
I went through a log of tweets from @AirportPakistan during the Karachi airport siege and attack, and it seems Jawad respectfully and tactfully, answered hundreds of queries from concerned travelers in a span of 18 hours. He got some strong endorsements from a few leading journalists about his updates too:
Round of applause for @AirportPakistan, done a hell of a job. Not an easy job.
— Shaheryar Mirza (@mirza9) June 9, 2014
Photo from Jawad's Instagram.
While we were messaging over Twitter, Jawad added that he is also “a struggling aviator, a rejected cadet pilot from a commercial airline. They said I am color blind. I don't believe [them].”
The brief firing incident delayed Karachi Airport's already recovering flight schedule, which Jawad monitored continuously, despite his impending exams. Journalists, like BBC's Amber Rahim and official Twitter accounts from leading international airlines, retweeted his posts, too:
“@AirportPakistan: #EK601 departs from #Jinnah International of #Karachi for #Dubai. pic.twitter.com/yX055HQPPH“
— Amber Rahim Shamsi (@AmberRShamsi) June 10, 2014
@flysrilankan Flights to and from Colombo to #Karachi are on hold.
— CAA Pakistan (@AirportPakistan) June 10, 2014
@AirportPakistan what about tomorrow? Do you recommend we shift our seats from Cathay to Thai? Going to Singapore.
— aamnaisani (@aamnaisani) June 10, 2014
Back in March, a online newspaper for London’s business community, wrote a piece on @AirportPakistan, assuming it was an official account, with the headline “Pakistan’s official airports Twitter account is the most optimistic and brilliant in the world“.
Jawad is trying to get in touch with the right person at Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority to get their endorsement to run an official Twitter account. (They currently don't have one.) Jawad gets his flight information from the official CAA website and tracks flight statuses through some online “trade secrets”.
Jawad is just one example of the many young entrepreneurial Pakistanis staying resilient despite their military and government's failure to reign in the Taliban and provide peace and security to the country.
Sahar Habib Ghazi interviewed Jawad Nazir for this report. Sahar is the Managing Editor at Global Voices and she divides her time between Karachi and San Francisco.