PAKISTAN: Karachi at near standstill over killing of party workers

Record ID: 341154

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Karachi at near standstill over killing of party workers
  • Date: 6th June 2013
  • Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (JUNE 6, 2013) (REUTERS) THIN TRAFFIC IN STREET PRIVATE VEHICLES DRIVING THROUGH STREET SECURITY PATROLLING VARIOUS OF CLOSED SHOPS LOCKS ON SHOPS SUGARCANE JUICE MACHINE PEOPLE SITTING IDLE CLOSE OF ELDERLY MAN'S FACE ROADSIDE JUICE VENDOR RICKSHAW DRIVER SITTING IDLE (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) JAVED IQBAL, LOCAL RESIDENT SAYING: "What will the daily wage worke
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA70P32AM3UCPBLKWMFTMX98Y59
  • Story Text: Many businesses in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi were shut after calls by a political party to observe a day of mourning on Thursday (June 6) after three of its workers were abducted and killed the previous day.
    The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced it would observe a "peaceful day of mourning in Sindh" province, of which Karachi is capital, in protest over the abduction and killing of its supporters.
    They appealed to traders, businessmen and transporters in Sindh to keep their businesses shut on Thursday.
    Traffic was thin with public transport off the road and shops and petrol stations were closed.
    But some were worried about their income being affected.
    "What will the daily wage workers do? I will also not get the wages for today, I am worried," said Javed Iqbal, a local resident.
    Unidentified gunmen abducted four people and later killed three of them, injuring the fourth man critically on the outskirts of Pakistan's biggest city Karachi on Wednesday (June 5).
    Police recovered three bullet-riddled bodies and one critically injured man from Jam Goth in the Malir area in the eastern part of Karachi.
    The MQM, which has a stranglehold on politics in Karachi claimed the victims were their workers.
    Later on Wednesday, about one hundred workers and supporters of MQM staged a sit-in demonstration outside the chief minister's house. The demonstrators placed the bodies outside the gates of the house during the protest that continued through the evening.
    "There is a sit-in going on with dead bodies of three of MQM deceased workers. They were kidnapped in early hours at Malir area of Karachi. All of them were identified as MQM people and then the gangsters of Lyari, they kidnapped them and later on killed them," said a leader of MQM and member of Sindh assembly, Faisal Sabzwari.
    He alleged that some elements within the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were backing the gangsters in Lyari area.
    PPP elected its chief minister a few days back after winning majority seats in Sindh province while it stood second in the May 11 elections nationally.
    The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.
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