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29 March 2024

45 shot dead in Karachi unrest

Rangers stand guard on high alert following violence in Karachi. (REUTERS)

Published
By AFP

Political and ethnic violence erupted in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi after the murder of an MP, killing 45 people as protesters torched vehicles in a revenge spree, officials said on Tuesday.

The lawmaker, who represented the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a partner in the Sindh provincial ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People’s Party, was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on Monday.

Raza Haider's assassination sparked panic in the teeming city of 16 million, where markets closed and streets emptied as gunfire erupted overnight in parts of the financial capital.

The unrest exacerbated woes in a country battling to contain unprecedented flooding that has killed up to 1,500 people and affected a total of 3.2 million, and trying to contain a diplomatic row with Britain over terrorism.

In Karachi dozens of vehicles and several shops were set on fire and more than 90 people were wounded.

Police said they stepped up security to prevent major incidents of violence or sabotage, deploying hundreds of officers to protect Haider's funeral.

Hamid Parhiar, police surgeon of Sindh province, said 45 people died after the attacks and that 93 people were admitted to hospitals with injuries.

Officials described the dead as rickshaw drivers, cab drivers, labourers and passers-by from various ethnic groups who were shot dead in some of the city's most destitute neighbourhoods.

"Miscreants torched up to 24 buses and cars last night. They also damaged a petrol station and a few shops in different parts of the city," said Sindh government spokesman Jameel Soomro.

"The violence seemed to be the reaction to yesterday's killing of the MQM MP, but at the same time a third party could exploit the situation to destabilise our democratic government and disturb Karachi," he said.

Calm returned to Karachi on Tuesday and Soomro said orders had been given to paramilitary Rangers forces to "shoot on sight miscreants involved in creating a law and order problem".

Police had arrested about 12 suspects in connection with Haider's assassination, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The suspects include three men belonging to [banned Al Qaeda-linked militant outfit] Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who had been facing charges of targeted killings and been lately released by the courts on bail," he said.

Provincial authorities have already banned public political meetings in Karachi in an effort to control intermittent waves of political killings.

Tensions are high between coalition partners MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP), which represent different communities in Karachi and so straddle political fault lines in the city.

Both parties accused each other over targeted killings and analysts say groups were at war in Karachi as part of a power struggle.

"There is a pitched war among various groups for political influence and political space in the city," said IA Rehman, secretary general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.