Violence between ethnic groups and criminal gangs killed 39 people in Pakistan’s financial capital of Karachi, police said yesterday, as the government again struggled for solutions to the unrest.
A former MP for the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Waja Karimdad, was among those killed in the fresh wave of violence in Karachi, where hundreds of additional police and paramilitary troops were deployed last month.
Spiralling unrest is a major source of concern in Pakistan’s biggest city, which is used by NATO to ship the bulk of its supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan and which accounts for around a fifth of the country’s GDP.
Independent economist A.B. Shahid estimated that 20 per cent of the city’s business was shut down yesterday with markets closed in southern neighbourhoods to protest against extortion money demanded by criminal gangs.
The violence has been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the Awami National Party (ANP).
“The death toll in the violence since yesterday morning has gone up to 39,” city police chief Saud Mirza said, adding that “the situ-ation is getting better” after more police were deployed in the affected areas.
Slum compounds in the Lyari area were spattered with blood, pockmarked by bullets and damaged by grenade attacks that killed residents and left widows crying and beating their chests outside their homes.
The federal and the provincial governments have been at a loss on how to quell the unrest, which this year has been at its deadliest in 16 years.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani again dispatched Interior Minister Rehman Malik to Karachi and called for “immed-iate and across-the-board action against the criminals who were playing with the peace of the metropolis”.
Mr Malik drew widespread ridicule last month when he blamed 70 per cent of the violence on angry wives and girlfriends, remarks that he quickly denied.
“Show no leniency to these elements who are there to ruin the city life,” the Prime Minister said following talks with provincial and MQM officials, but stopped short of announcing any specific policies.