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| India-Pakistan | |
| Â Karachi violence claims 33 lives | |
| 2010-10-18 | |
| [Geo TV] At least 33 people lost their lives in the ongoing string of firing incidents continued since yesterday, Geo News reported Sunday. Unidentified gunnies are on the rampage in various areas of the city. The most affected area is Orangi Town, where polling held after the provincial seat vacated on the killing of MQM MPA Raza Haider. Innocent people were injured in intermittent rings of gunshots in various areas including Altaf Town, Paposhnagar, Banars and Kati Pahari. At least five people were killed in firing incident at teashops in Rasheedabad and Abul Isfahani areas. Vehicles were torched in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Sindh Interior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza directed the police chief to beef up the security in the affected areas. Tension still persists in areas of Karachi. The unrest follows a deadly wave of violence in the metropolis that claimed 85 lives in the wake of the death of politician Raza Haider, who was rubbed out by gunnies in August. Tensions are high between MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP), which each represent different communities in Karachi, straddling political fault lines in the city. Karachi is plagued by ethnic and sectarian killings, crime and kidnappings. A founding member of MQM, Imran Farooq, who was living in exile in Britain, was brutally murdered outside his north London home in September. MQM is a partner in the ruling coalition led by the Pakistain People's Party in the southern province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital. The government has not released exact figures, but rights groups say more than 260 assassinations were reported in Karachi during the first six months of this year, compared with 156 during the same period in 2009.
Police said they were still investigating the motives behind the shootings but the city has been hit by scores of "targeted killings" carried out by political gangs that have fought in the city for more than 20 years. Cars and buses were torched as violence erupted on Saturday night and continued into Sunday when polls opened. Fayyza Leghari, the city's police chief, said: "We cannot say whether all the killings were politically motivated or some gangs were involved because the killings took place in different parts of the city and were not confined to the area where the elections were being held." The sprawling megacity – home to an estimated 18m people – is gripped by a power struggle between two political parties that draw their support from rival ethnic groups. Each fresh wave of violence paralyses the city, Pakistan's economic heart and a crucial port for Nato supplies on their way to Afghanistan. The murder of Raza Haider, from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), triggered riots that killed at least 100 people in August. The MQM accused the Awami National Party (ANP), which represents Pashtuns who have migrated from the northwest of the country to the southern port city, of supporting Islamists suspected of being behind the murder. The ANP boycotted Sunday's by-election, accusing the MQM of trying to rig the vote. In the 1980s and 1990s, Karachi was regularly convulsed by violence in which hundreds were killed. Altaf Hussain, the MQM leader, fled to London in 1992 as a result of that bloodshed and was granted asylum. The murder last month of Imran Farooq, another senior member of the party, raised fears the city's violent struggle was being exported to the UK. | |
| Posted by:Fred |