Toll in Karachi bloodshed rises to 33
KARACHI: Unknown gunmen killed four people in different incidents of target killing in Karachi on Wednesday, bringing to 33 the number of people killed in the city in the past 24 hours.
It is right now difficult to name any groups over involvement in the killings but I can say one thing this is a conspiracy to destabilise Karachi, city police chief Fayyaz Leghari told AFP.
Police have arrested several suspects and they are being interrogated, Leghari said without disclosing any numbers.
Moreover, a curfew may be imposed in certain neighbourhoods of Karachi, television reports quoted sources as saying.
Search operations are reportedly going to be launched in the city's sensitive areas, reports said.
Commercial centres shut down in the wake of the violence that intensified on Tuesday claiming at least 29 lives.
Police and paramilitary troops patrolled troubled parts of the city, which were deserted with public transport on strike, an AFP reporter said.
Police were searching for attackers in eastern and southern parts of the city where the violence has been concentrated.
The head of the Karachi Transporters' Association said it would have been risky to work on Wednesday, although the stock exchange was functioning.
It is always very dangerous to bring public transport to the roads on such occasions, Irshad Bokhari told AFP.
Roads were clear, and shopping centres and educational institutions closed across the teeming city of 20 million, heading a call from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on citizens to mourn the deaths.
Our party gave the call to mourn the deaths of innocent people in the city, senior MQM official Farooq Sattar told AFP.
Some shops were set on fire in the citys Malir neighbourhood, where police tried to calm gathering crowds, footage broadcast on private television channels showed.
Several small shops, including fruit and vegetable stalls, were set ablaze in the area. Young men ran onto the streets, and police officers tried to keep the situation under control, the footage showed.
During Tuesdays violence, at least 12 of the victims were killed in an attack on a scrap market in the city's Shershah area. It was the worst single incident since the latest outbreak of violence erupted on Saturday.
In the Shershah attack, most of those killed were shopkeepers and workers. Nine people were also injured in the incident when about 10 unknown gunmen opened fire.
Sindh Youth Affairs Minister Faisal Sabzwari said almost all victims of the Shershah attack belonged to the Urdu-speaking community. The attack was followed by several incidents of shooting in different areas, leaving several more people dead.
The MQM alleged that elements involved in Lyari gang war were involved in the Shershah attack.
In a statement, the MQM coordination committee said there was credible information that Lyari gangsters Baba Ladla, Jabbar Langra, Faisal Pathan, Fahad, Mulla Raju, Shafi Magsi, Lal Mohammad Magsi and Zubair Wehsi had carried out the attack.
It said the attackers had gone to the junk market on motorcycles from Mewashah graveyard, but they were not intercepted by police.
Karachi, a port city of some 20 million, has a long history of political, ethnic and religious strife, but this year has been exceptionally bloody. As of June, around 300 ''targeted killings'' had occurred in the city, roughly twice that of 2009. Many of the killings in Karachi have been linked to gangs allegedly controlled by political parties.
