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| India-Pakistan |
| Karachi tense after UK killing |
| 2010-09-18 |
| [Al Jazeera] Karachi, Pakistain's biggest city, has been effectively shut down after a senior politician of the dominant Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was stabbed to death in London. Gas stations, schools and markets in Karachi were all closed on Friday and public transport was not running as news of the killing of Imran Farooq, a founding member of the MQM party, spread. Osama Bin Javaid, a senior editor at Pakistain's Dawn News, told Al Jazeera that Karachi was in "sombre mood". "It is a city in shock and fear right now ... there is very little traffic on the streets and the city wears a deserted look," he said. "There have been scattered pockets of violence in several parts of the city. Shops have been burned and vehicles set alight ... It is very much waiting and bracing itself for if there will be a backlash." It is feared that the killing could trigger more ethnic and political violence in Karachi. Revenge attacks and random acts of arson often follow high-profile murders in the southern Pakistain city. "If this murder had happened in Karachi it would have triggered a severe reaction. Now, there is a tense calm prevailing over the city," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistain. |
| Posted by:Fred |