City and terrorism mapping the impact of terror and paranoia on urban culture and fabric of Lahore city

Abstract

Post 9/11 saw a shift in the way people started behaving, using and even looking at the city of Lahore, although the transformation remained subtle and slow. Starting in 2006 Lahore saw malicious terrorist attacks which targeted government buildings, public and religious places. It has been recorded by “CIRCLe” that the attacks in “Punjab account for only 18% of attacks in the whole of the country, yet in terms of deaths, Punjab is 18 percent of the casualty figure of KPK and 19 percent of the casualty figure of FATA”.7 The past decade has taken its toll on the city of Lahore, impacting the physical as well as the social fabric of the city. Terrorism has given rise to an environment of “insecurity” in Lahore, which is rapidly reshaping not only the fabric of the city but the everyday life of the residents and the socio-economic dynamics as well. The strength of this fear can be measured by understanding how people behave, move (in the city), interact, use and reminisce public spaces. In such conditions fear and paranoia becomes one of the most important tools for its people to map the city and to understand society in its true form it becomes imperative to understand the fabric of the city within such realm. The paper shall aim to understate various kinds of violence and terrorism forms prevailing in the city, their evolution. Mapping of the area of Mall road shall be used to understand the direct impact in terms of design elements that have altered the fabric of the place and photographic survey shall be done to highlight the transformation in the built environment over the years.