Karachi: Tensions continue to mount on Tuesday
with sporadic incidents of violence in Pakistan's commercial
capital, even as the Sindh government is contemplating calling
the Army to control the recent spate of ethnic and political
clashes that has left 25 dead in last few days.
Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza told the media after a
meeting on the law and order situation in the city said that
the government had taken strong notice of the spate of target
killings and violence in Karachi.
"If the situation demands we can also call out the
army to assist the administration in controlling the
situation," he said.
Tension prevailed here with violence and aerial
firing reported from some areas where armed men forced
shopkeepers to close down and burnt vehicles.
Since the trouble started late Friday night around
25 people most of them workers of different political parties
have been killed in target killings and violence.
Mirza said, the government was also considering
imposing section 144 in other parts of the city after it was
enforced in the worst hit area of Orangi yesterday.
The "Dawn" newspaper expressed apprehensions that
the recent spate of violence and killings had raised spectre
of ethnic violence erupting on a big scale again in the city
as it prevailed in the 80s and 90s.
Most of the killings were ethnic based and as a
result of fighting between the Pashtun dominated, Awami
National Party and the Urdu speaking Mutthaida Qaumi movement.
"We can't allow innocent people to be affected or
daily life to be disrupted by this violence, we intend to
take strict action against those involved in these killings
and violence," the Home Minister said.
Both the parties are coalition partners with the
ruling government in the centre and Sindh.
A high level MQM delegation also me with President
Asif Zardari on Monday to discuss the issues.
The MQM claims most of the people killed in the
violence have been its workers but the ANP claimed that six
persons killed in the Nazimabad area last night were its
activists although police said they were daily wage labourers
who had fallen prey to the violence.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 02, 2010, 17:38