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28 March 2024

10 killed in Karachi sectarian violence

Published
By AFP

At least 10 people have been killed in a renewed wave of sectarian and ethnic killings by criminal gangs in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police said on Tuesday.

The victims included the wife of a lawmaker from southwestern province Baluchistan and their teenage daughter.

They were returning home after attending a wedding overnight when their car was intercepted by two motorcyclists who shot them and their driver dead, police official Rahim Ullah said.

"At least 10 people have been killed in targeted shootings in the last 24 hours," provincial home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon.

"Some of those were killed because of sectarian reasons."

A security official said at least 25 people had been killed over the last week, mostly as part of sectarian conflict.

"Terrorists killed people including three lawyers and two doctors because of their sects," the official said.

Zohra Yusuf, the head of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, said data was still being compiled but that 35 to 40 people had been killed in sectarian violence in Karachi this month.

The city last year endured its worst ethnic and political unrest in 16 years. The southern port city is used by the United States to ship supplies to Nato troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's rights bodies said more than 1,000 people were killed in violence in Karachi last year, including more than 100 in one week alone in October.