Metropolitan Widespread violence afflicts Karachi: 30 April

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http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...11-violence-explodes-across-north-karachi--10

KARACHI: At least 25 people were killed and over 40 others injured in a fresh wave of ethnic violence in different parts of Karachi on Wednesday. About 20 vehicles were torched.

Tension and panic gripped parts of the city as unidentified attackers went on a shooting spree, killing most of the victims at point-blank range.

City police chief Wasim Ahmed told Dawn that 20 people had been killed in the violence across the city, including ‘16 Pathans and three Urdu-speaking people’.

Police said that the trouble began early in the morning when armed men who had taken position on the hills in North Karachi fired volleys of bullets upon Zarina Colony, a shanty town in the foothills. A worker of the Muttahida Quami Movement was killed at around 10.30am when he came under fire.

Police said that a sub-inspector and a constable were shot and wounded when law-enforcement personnel went to fetch the body.

The SP of North Karachi, Dr Farooq Ahmed, told Dawn that police and Rangers returned fire, forcing the gunmen to retreat. ‘Later, police and Rangers conducted a siege and search operation on the hills, arrested 16 people and seized some weapons,’ he added.

Witnesses said that special commandos from Rangers also reached the troubled hills and flushed the armed men out of the area. They said a Rangers man was shot and wounded in the action.

Most of the violent incidents took place in Khawaja Ajmair Nagri, Surjani Town and New Karachi Industrial Area. The violence-hit areas wore a deserted look as shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and vehicular traffic disappeared.

An MQM worker was shot dead in Shah Faisal Colony. His body was first taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and then to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for post-mortem.

Police surgeon Dr Hamid Padhiar told Dawn that 12 people were brought dead to the Abbasi Hospital. ‘Five bodies were later shifted to the JPMC,’ he added.

The director at the emergency centre of JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, told Dawn that 11 bodies and 18 wounded people were brought to the hospital. ‘Four wounded victims later died,’ she added.

Civil Hospital’s medico-legal officer Dr Sarwat Channa said that a man was brought dead from North Nazimabad and another man from Teen Hatti.

‘A man with a bullet wound was brought to the facility from Gulistan-i-Jauhar,’ he added. Vehicles were torched in North Karachi, Landhi, Malir and Al-Fallah.

The dead were identified as Zahoor Shah, Sanubar Khan, Din Mohammed, Javed, Jalil, Amjad, Mehmood, Shahid, Juma Khan, Sanwal, Dost Ali, Jameel, Sarfaraz, Khalid, Shah Khalid and Hanif.

Sources said that two bullet-riddled bodies were found at a post office in Sachal area. The bodies were taken to the JPMC late in the night.

 

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‘Shoot at sight’ orders issued in Karachi

ISLAMABAD: The Minister of State for Ports and Shipping, Nabeel Gabol, has said that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Home Minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza have issued ‘shoot at sight’ orders to security forces in Karachi. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ordered an inquiry into the new wave of violence in the city.

Talking to Dawn here on Wednesday, Mr Gabol said: ‘Rangers and other security forces have been ordered to shoot miscreants carrying out indiscriminate firing, killing innocent people and burning public and private property.’

He said: ‘We know who these people are and what is their agenda.’ Mr Gabol denied that the fighting was between workers of three main political parties — Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party.

‘We have information that they are the men of a foreign agency who are killing innocent people in collaboration with a religious party,’ the minister said, adding that 10 to 15 armed men in different areas of the city had been tasked to spread terror.

‘They are the enemy of Pakistan and creating unrest in Karachi, but I am hopeful that security forces will overcome the situation by tomorrow.’

Mr Gabol said that people involved in shooting and burning vehicles were not political workers but terrorists who had been planning attacks in Karachi over the past three months to sabotage harmony between the PPP, MQM and ANP.

ALTAF’S APPEAL
MQM chief Altaf Hussain warned the government in a TV interview that criminals and people of land and drug mafia had been planning to sabotage peace in Karachi.

He appealed to leaders and workers of the MQM, PPP and ANP to remain peaceful and reactivate their joint peace committees to help restore peace in the city.

The MQM chief urged the provincial government to convene an emergency meeting of leaders of main political parties to evolve a joint strategy to cope with the situation.

Mr Altaf alleged that the Taliban were supporting drug and land mafia in Karachi and providing them arms and money.

He also condemned the killing of activists of his party and others in the violence. In a statement issued from London, Mr Hussain offered condolence to the aggrieved families and prayed to Almighty Allah to rest their souls in peace. He also regretted the killing of police and rangers’ personnel.

 

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Ethnic violence erupts in Pakistani city; 18 dead



KARACHI, April 29 (Reuters) - Ethnic violence broke out in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub and the capital of southern Sindh province, has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence but the sprawling city has been relatively peaceful in recent years.

The city is dominated by Mohajirs, Urdu-speaking people who migrated from India after Pakistan was created in 1947, but there is a sizeable population of ethnic Pashtuns.

Violence erupted in different parts of the city after an unidentified man opened fire on a mohajir neighbourhood in the centre of the city.

"It was the result of a dispute between two groups," city police chief Waseem Ahmed said, referring to the two ethic communities.

Provincial health minister Sagheer Ahmed put the death toll at 18. Hospital officials said dozens of wounded people wounded brought for treatment to hospitals.

More than two dozens cars and several shops were torched in violence across the city, police said. (Reporting by Imtiaz Shah, writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Matthew Jones)