Differences between political parties has led the country’s economic hub to anarchy where 34 people were killed on Thursday, taking the total death toll to 58 in three consecutive days of violence, as Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a targeted operation would be carried out to stem the killings in the city.
Malik arrived here on the directions of President Asif Ali Zardari to hold talks with the provincial chief minister and help the government in restoring peace to the city. He said the government would deploy 1,000 FC personnel to assist the police and other law enforcement agencies in enforcing the law in the city.
The president has also called former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza and Senior Minister for Education Pir Mazharul Haq to Islamabad to discuss the situation with them. Political circles took this move as a possible change in the Sindh government’s top slot. Earlier, ambulances had been racing through the city’s troubled areas all day, ferrying bodies and the injured to hospitals. The worst incident of bloodshed took place in North Nazimabad where 10 armed men opened indiscriminate fire on a passenger bus killing 10 and 16 others.
West Deputy Inspector General Imran Yaqoob told Pakistan Today that the passenger bus was attacked by criminals, who took shelter in Abdullah College due to tension in Orangi Town.
Seven motorcycles and a car were torched in Valika Chowrangi in the ensuing violence. Two people were killed, and six injured when unidentified armed men opened fire at another bus passenger in the SITE-A police precincts. Another 13 people were killed in Orangi Town.
Eight people including a minor girl were killed in the Peerabad police precincts, three were killed in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, while another two were killed in an ambush near Mosamiyat Chowrangi in Mobina Town police limits.A body of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) member was found in Jam Goth in Memon Goth police precincts and two were shot dead in Baldia Town. A body was recovered by the Surjani Town police in Lyari Expressway, another body was found in Ramsawami while two were found in Nabi Bukhsh police precincts. Around 60 people were also injured in firing incidents across the city.
Forty-one of the injured were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, 14 were admitted in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and five were taken to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) for treatment.
A security official said several neighbourhoods remained tense and gunfire could be heard as the sun set. Local residents said they were virtually confined to their homes because of indiscriminate firing. “Many people have run out of their food stock. There is no milk for children and no chance of patients being shifted to hospitals for treatment,” said Mohammad Asghar, a schoolteacher in the Orangi area. “We are left at the mercy of trigger-happy scoundrels and the security forces are conspicuous by their absence,” he added.
MQM rally: Meanwhile, the MQM decided to observe a day of mourning and take out a rally from the Sindh Assembly to the Chief Minister’s House to protest the government’s failure to curb targeted killings. “Our supporters are being killed to punish us for quitting the ruling coalition,” MQM leader Raza Haroon told AFP. “We have decided that our parliamentarians would hold peaceful rallies in Karachi and Islamabad on Friday.” Meanwhile the Sindh chief minister ordered law enforcement agencies to shoot at sight anyone violating the law.
58 dead and counting
