Twenty-seven people were killed and 100 wounded in Karachi yesterday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists as Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to hold a rally with his supporters.
The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 has outraged the judiciary and the opposition and has blown up into the most serious challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's authority since he seized power in 1999.
In the worst political clashes in Pakistan for years, heavy gunfire erupted in several parts of Karachi as gunmen battled and smoke billowed from more than 100 burning vehicles.
Opposition leaders said the city was under siege by supporters of the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which runs Pakistan's biggest city.
Yesterday was declared a public holiday in Karachi and normal traffic was largely absent from the streets, where thousands of paramilitary troops and police were on patrol. Many roads, including the one from the airport, were blocked by trucks, buses and shipping containers overnight in an apparent bid to disrupt Chaudhry's visit to the capital of Sindh province.
Provincial government officials had warned of violence in the volatile city and appealed to Chaudhry to postpone his trip. But he arrived on a flight from Islamabad at noon. He spent more than eight hours in the airport VIP lounge, hoping to meet supporters, while authorities urged him to leave the city.
The provincial government later issued an order for the lawyers accompanying Chaudhry to leave the province and he had decided to return to Islamabad with them, one of his lawyers said.
Chaudhry denies wrongdoing and has refused to resign in the face of charges of misconduct. His visit to Karachi was meant to be the latest in a series of protests by the opposition and lawyers to press for his reinstatement. MQM activists clashed with members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an opposition alliance of religious parties, and the PPP in several parts of Karachi, which has for years been riven by bloody political feuding.