- Title: PAKISTAN: Karachi virtually shut down after strike call
- Date: 13th May 2007
- Summary: EMPTY STREET
- Embargoed: 28th May 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Pakistan
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA9U8XQARDDHFQYGKJKNZIM9YM1
- Story Text: Shops are closed and public transport is off the streets of Karachi after nearly 40 people were killed and about 150 wounded in Pakistan's worst political street violence in two decades.
The Pakistani government authorised paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence in Karachi, where 40 people have been killed over the past two days. The city authorities have banned demonstrations in the city and declared a public holiday. The opposition called for a protest strike.
Shops were closed and streets were deserted in the city. Only a few residents were seen walking in the centre. Dozens of checkpoints manned by armed troops and backed by military vehicles were set up throughout the city.
"There is lot of trouble. I am a government servant. I have to be on duty. Now I have to go on foot to my workplace," a resident said.
The weekend violence began when Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to meet supporters in the southern city.
Government attempts to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over unspecified accusations of misconduct on March 9 have outraged the judiciary and the opposition.
The judicial crisis has snowballed into a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf and is the most serious challenge to the authority of the president, who is also army chief, since he seized power in 1999.
But the violence has raised the spectre of the bloody feuding that plagued the city in the 1980s and 1990s.
The opposition is blaming the government and the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which runs Karachi, for the violence.
The government says Chaudhry, who returned to Islamabad on Saturday without meeting his Karachi supporters, ignored appeals for him not to travel to the volatile city because of fears of violence. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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