Fourteen people were killed and another 42 injured in a fresh wave of violence and bloodshed in Karachi on Tuesday. Ten people were killed and 31 others injured in Orangi Town alone.
In reaction to the killings, the Sindh Home Secretary announced a ban on pillion riding in the city late on Tuesday. The ban would come into effect at 12am on July 6, (Tuesday midnight) for an indefinite period. Senior citizens, women and journalists have been exempted from the ban, which the Sindh Home Department said was essential to control the worsening law and order, particularly in Orangi.
In Orangi, 10 people were killed in a clash between Pashtun and Urdu speaking groups. Those killed included Hidayat, Gul Nawaz, Aijaz, Salahuddin, Javed Akbar, Kamran, Gul Muhammad, Abdullah, Kamran and an unidentified man.
Orangi Town Intelligence Officer Muhammad Iqbal said eight people were killed in Orangi police precincts, while one each was shot dead in Peerabad and Iqbal Market police jurisdictions.
Iqbal said 31 people had been injured in incidents of aerial and direct firing in the town. He said the violent incidents took place in Qasba Colony and Katti Pahari (Orangi police precincts) and Bukhari Colony, Noorani Park and Orangi Town Sector 1-D (Peerabad police precincts), while a man was killed in the jurisdiction of Iqbal Market police station.
Earlier, a man was gunned down and eight others, including three policemen, were injured in attack by a mob of around 150 young men on the Sher Shah Scrap market. The mob attacked the participants of the funereal of a youth who was abducted from Sher Shah and killed by unidentified armed men on Monday. The mob ransacked houses and streets in Sher Shah and beat up residents.
It also attacked policemen when a police party tried to intervene. Sher Shah SHO Arif Afridi said around 150 boys of Pak Colony attacked the funeral procession, adding that one Imran, 25, had been killed by aerial firing. In another development, a body in a gunny bag was found near a garbage dump in Korangi 51-D. The victim was identified as Aamir. Karachi Capital City Police Officer Karachi Saud Mirza said the tension in Orangi was a result of clashes between linguistic groups in Essa Nagri and Sher Shah.
He said police were in control of the situation in Essa Nagri and Sher Shah, but the situation in Orangi was still out of control. Mirza said search operations would be launched in troubled areas of Orangi late on Tuesday and extra police contingents had been called for the purpose.