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Pro-Taliban Sunni cleric gunned down, sparking riotMonday, May 31,
2004
Zarar Khan
Associated Press
Karachi, Pakistan - Thousands of Sunni Muslims rampaged through this volatile southern Pakistani city Sunday, ransacking property and stoning vehicles after unidentified gunmen assassinated an influential pro-Taliban cleric. Enraged by the drive-by shooting of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, rioters set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant, and exchanged gunfire with security forces, leaving more than a dozen people injured. Tens of thousand of mourners later gathered for the evening funeral, where police fired warning shots above the crowd. Shamzai, in his 70s, had met Osama bin Laden and was a strong supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. The cleric was shot dead as he traveled in a pickup truck to his Sunni Muslim religious school on the east side of the city. Witnesses told police that as many as six gunmen riding in two cars and on a motorcycle opened fire on Shamzai's vehicle, wounding one of his sons, a nephew, his driver and a police bodyguard. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting, which Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali condemned as a "dastardly act of terrorism." In the riots, Sunni Muslim students, some shouting slogans against rival Shiite Muslims, took to the streets. Paramilitary forces were deployed to protect Shiite mosques, amid fears of sectarian violence. The attack came three weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 worshippers at a Shiite mosque in Karachi, and days after two car bombings near the U.S. Consul's residence that killed one person and injured 40. Since late 2001, when Pakistan threw its support behind the U.S.-led war on terror, Karachi has been wracked by terrorist attacks, some targeting foreigners, others apparently motivated by sectarian differences. Nearly 80 percent of people in this Islamic country are Sunnis and live peacefully with minority Shiites, but radical groups on both sides often launch deadly attacks against members of the other sect. After Shamzai's shooting, Sunnis - mostly students wearing beards, traditional white caps and tunics - set fires and pelted passing vehicles with stones. Hundreds raided a police station near Shamzai's school, Jamia Islamia Binor Town, beating up three policemen and setting fire to vehicles. Police said rioters set fire to four banks and Quaid-e-Azam Academy, an institute that conducts research on Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. They ransacked shops, a KFC restaurant, a cinema and a gas station, and snatched two ambulances.
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