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| India-Pakistan |
| Political Riots In Pakistan - 37 Dead |
| 2007-05-13 |
| Pro-government and opposition groups blamed each other Sunday for Pakistan's worst political violence in years, as new riots broke out and the toll from street battles in Karachi rose to 37 dead and over 150 wounded. Security forces in armored personnel carriers and pickup trucks topped with machine guns patrolled the streets, which were largely deserted. But gunmen traded shots between neighborhoods dominated by rival ethnic groups, and police found the bullet-ridden body of a pro- government activist. Firefighters were called after a funeral procession left a row of shops in flames. A crisis has been brewing since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9 over allegations he abused his office. Critics accuse Musharraf, also army chief, of trying to sideline the independent-minded judge in case of legal challenges to efforts to prolong his nearly eight-year rule. The push to reinstate Chaudhry as chief justice has galvanized Pakistan's opposition and amounts to the biggest challenge to Musharraf's rule since his 1999 coup. Competing rallies timed for Chaudhry's planned visit to Karachi on Saturday sparked gunfights and clashes between rival political activists that left corpses in the streets and raised new fears for the nation's stability. Opposition parties have accused the pro-government Mutahida Qaumi Movement party of initiating much of Saturday's violence. "It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," the respected Dawn daily lamented in a Sunday's newspaper. Officials contacted at four hospitals across Karachi said the casualty toll had risen to 37 dead and about 150 wounded. Karachi police chief Azhar Faruqi said several people have been arrested in connection with Saturday's violence but gave no details. He declared that authorities were "now in control of the city." On Saturday, officials said a security force of 15,000 was deployed in the city, but there was no sign of intervention in the violence. Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said the government and Musharraf were "equally responsible for what has happened." "It shows that the government wanted to create a situation of civil strife to find an excuse for imposing an emergency and postponing elections," Babar said. But in his own mass rally in Islamabad late Saturday, Musharraf insisted he would not declare an emergency, and said a presidential vote by lawmakers and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned by year's end. He urged opposition parties to stop protests in support of the judge. "My heart was weeping when I saw that people were dying, they were being killed, they were being martyred," he told a crowd. On Sunday, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said said there was no "definite proof" of who was involved in the rioting. The exiled leader of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, blamed Chaudhry for the violence, saying he should have heeded warnings from officials to stay away from Karachi. He said the MQM, a Karachi-based party has a reputation for militancy, was attacked. Opposition members and lawyers accused the MQM of launching the attacks with batons and guns as supporters of the judge attempted to greet Chaudhry on Saturday at the airport, ahead of a planned address to a gathering of lawyers in the city. Gunbattles broke out as MQM rivals retaliated. A private TV network accused MQM activists of firing at its building because of its live coverage of the violence. The channel stayed on the air as rioters torched vehicles outside. The violence trapped Chaudhry at the airport. He returned to Islamabad late Saturday without addressing the rally. An MQM rally went ahead as planned. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |