Nearly 300 arrested for Karachi target killings (Second Lead)

KARACHI - Nearly 300 people have been arrested for a spate of political-ethnic killings in this southern port city that have claimed 35 lives over three days, Sindh’s home minister said Thursday, even as the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers have been given special powers for a month to restore law and order.

Addressing a high-level meeting here, provincial Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza said 291 people had been arrested for the killings, which began Tuesday night and continued through Wednesday to Thursday morning. Earlier reports had placed the toll in the violence at 25.

He said that the Rangers had been given additional powers and that additional contingents of troopers had been deployed in areas where the situation is out of control, Online news agency reported.

He also charged that some political parties were behind the killings, that were aimed at destabilising the provincial government.

The violence targeted activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), The News reported.

Ironically, the MQM is a junior partner in the Sindh and federal coalition governments, both of which are headed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The ANP is also part of the federal coalition.

Despite this, the MQM and the ANP have constantly been at loggerheads as they push the interests of their respective communities - the Mohajirs who migrated from India when the sub-continent was partitioned and the Pushtoon-origin residents of Karachi.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a telephonic conversation with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah Thursday, expressed grief over the incidents and directed that strict action be taken against the perpetrators.

“The target killings (led to) the torching of buses, forceful closure of markets, the burning of roadside stalls as well as the targeting of police personnel. The entire city was in the grip of tension, with public transport disappearing from the roads by early (Wednesday) evening, as reports of the violence began to spread,” The News said.

Schools and colleges across the city remained closed Thursday, while the school examinations scheduled for the day were postponed.

The violence began Tuesday night when one Nabi Khan, an ANP activist and a mobile phone dealer by profession, was shot dead by armed men in the Shah Faisal Colony area. Later that night, an activist of the MQM, Mohammad Hanif, was shot dead in the same area.

Armed men also indulged in firing near the MQM office in Shah Faisal Colony, injuring two MQM activists.

Shah Faisal Town turned into a virtual war-zone, echoing with gunfire the entire night. The violence spread to other areas when armed men ransacked an ANP office in Dhoraji Colony, while a hardware shop in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal, was also torched.

The violence continued unabated through Wednesday, with the worst affected areas being Landhi, Quaidabad, Shah Latif, Shahra-e-Noor Jehan, Orangi Town, Peerabad, North Nazimabad, Mehmoodabad, Saddar, Preedy, Risala and the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, as armed men continued to indulge in firing and forcing traders to shut their businesses.

On Thursday, an ANP rally that had been taken out to protest against the killings was ambushed by armed assailants near the Lucky Star area, in which the party’s Mehmoodabad ward president was killed.

Police said that they recovered more than 50 empty bullet shells from the area.