Mosaic News

Buy Me A Coffee
News without borders
Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Mosaic News is free to read — but not free to run. Your (monthly) donation keeps it going. →
Pakistan·Boxing

Pakistan's Lyari boxing hub pushes back against Bollywood's gangland image

Friday, 5 June 2026, 06:23 · 1 min read

In Karachi's Lyari neighbourhood (a densely populated district of nearly 950,000 people in Pakistan's largest city), boxing coach Younus Qambrani has spent decades training young athletes — including girls — at his Pak Shaheen Boxing Club, challenging the area's internationally projected image as a hub of crime and violence. Lyari gained global notoriety through Bollywood's blockbuster Dhurandhar franchise, which depicts the neighbourhood as a lawless gangland, but locals say this portrayal ignores its rich cultural heritage as a centre for football, hip-hop, and boxing — a sport so beloved there that Muhammad Ali visited in 1989. Qambrani's club has produced notable champions, including Aliya Soomro, Pakistan's first woman to win a world boxing title, underscoring how the neighbourhood has moved well beyond the gang warfare of the mid-2000s to early 2010s, which was largely dismantled following a government crackdown in 2012.

Sources
Al Jazeera EnglishPakistan’s Lyari defies Bollywood’s gangland label to rise as boxing haven ↗︎
This article was automatically compiled by AI from the sources above. It may contain inaccuracies. Always read the original sources for the full context.