Vicious rioting broke out Wednesday evening in several parts of Karachi and continued into the night in protest against long spells of power outages. Bank branches and fast food franchise outlets bore the brunt of the publicÂ’s anger and Shahra-e-FaisalÂ’s traffic also suffered.Residents of the affected areas came out on to the streets and burnt tires and other materials. In some areas, the protesters broke traffic lights and damaged fast food restaurants by pelting them with stones. The police resorted to shelling and aerial firing to disperse the crowds.
The KESC operations director, Adnan Bashir, claimed that DHA staff had damaged the Main Korangi Cable while digging near the Defence police station, due to which power supply was cut off to Akhter Colony, Manzoor Colony, Kashmir Colony and other areas. Bashir said that the KESC staff was working to repair the damage and the electricity would be restored within eight to ten hours.
In Liaquatabad, the electricity was cut off since the afternoon, due to which, after sunset, residents came out on to the Shahrah-e-Pakistan and blocked the road. The riots spread from Teen Hatti to Dakkhana Chowk, from Dakkhana Chowk to Sindhi Hotel and from Ghareebabad to Liaquatabad no. 4, due to which these routes were blocked.