When the whole episode started, MQM were saying that they are counter-protesting the lawyers and CJ Choudhary... only after a while did they relapse into communal fighting targetting Pathans and Punjabis. This brings into suspicion that MQM originally got permission from Musharraf to stage protests against the lawyers, so the army or more probably the Rangers were told not to interfere. Then either the MQM's lower ranks got out of control, or MQM completely betrayed Musharraf and the large-scale killing started. The change in plans probably confused the Rangers, slowing their response time completely. Somebody - Musharaff or MQM higher leaders - lost control, the delay in communications made the problem worse.

Presence of Indian agents probably had much less to do with the decision not to send in the army (as they did against Bugti) than the presence of news-media - especially foreign media - in the city. Unlike some remote hills in middle of Balochistan, Karachi will be very well covered by media.... if even one jawan loses his cool and CNN catches it on camera, Musharraf would immediately be condemned world-wide as a tyrant. From that point on things can go really bad really fast. As he stands now, Musharraf can afford to lose Karachi before he can afford to lose world opinion.