News| Pakistan
10 hurt during strike in Karachi
 

Karachi: Six civilians and four officers were injured when a mob attacked a police station in Karachi yesterday during a strike called by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).

Most businesses and markets remained shut in the violence-prone city as supporters of an Islamist alliance roamed the key roads to enforce a strike to protest the killing of a hard line pro-Taliban cleric.

Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in some neighbourhoods, including Banarus and Orangi Town, where bearded youngsters, mostly from Deobandi religious schools, pelted stones on the traffic, torched a few vehicles in an attempt to make the countrywide strike a success.

But barring Quetta and a partial strike in some interior parts of Sindh, the strike fizzled out at other places.

At least six MMA supporters sustained gun wounds when they clashed with the police. Four policemen were also injured in attacks by stick-wielding seminary students.

"Our city seemed to have been held hostage by extremists," said Aman-ur Rehman, a shopkeeper on Tariq Road. "Who can take the risk of opening his shop when no one can protect us."

Police lobbed teargas shells to scatter small, but violent crowds of Sunnis in some Pashtun-dominated western neighourhoods of the city. The protesters were screaming 'Death to America and its agents'.

Violence was also reported near the Binnori Town mosque – where the slain pro-Taliban leader, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, taught.

Unidentified gunmen killed Shamzai on Sunday triggering massive violence in Karachi, including a retaliatory suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque on Monday that killed 24 worshippers.

At least 60 people – mostly Shiites – have been killed and hundreds injured in incidents of terrorism and violence during the month of May.

Analysts say Sunni hardliners were using attacks on Shi'ites – a minority in Pakistan – to undermine Pakistan's support for the US-led war on terrorism.

But MMA leader Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman alleged that the violence was being masterminded by "agencies."

"No foreigner or tribesmen is involved in Karachi violence," he said.

The MMA leaders held small rallies as clerics in majority of the mosques slammed the pro-US policies of the government. Governor of Sindh Ishrat-ul Ibad said that the government has asked the opposition not to exploit the situation.

"We won't allow anyone to create law and order problem," he said.

But shopkeepers in Karachi said that they shuttered their businesses, because they feared rioting by hardliners.

Meanwhile, speculations about a possible change in political set-up of Sindh were rife in Karachi, though Ibad said no such thing was on the cards.

"There will be no change in the provincial or federal setup," he said.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had proposed a united provincial administration in Sindh province, including opposition parties, to contain the violence. Karachi is the capital of Sindh. But the MMA as well as former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party rejected the proposal saying that the government was not serious.

Analysts, however, said that PML leader's statement indicates the growing cracks within the ruling coalition – a speculation denied strongly by the allies.

MQM leader Farooq Sattar said his leaders talked to their allies in the federal government in Islamabad. "They have assured us that there's nothing in pipeline," he said.

"We have shown them our strong reaction and registered our protest that a decision on Karachi cannot be taken while sitting in Islamabad and without taking all partners into the confidence."

 
 
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