MQM-lawyers clashes in Karachi leave eight dead

KARACHI — Violence gripped Pakistan’s biggest commercial city yesterday following clashes between lawyers and supporters of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that left eight people dead including a woman and scores others injured. More than 30 vehicles were torched in various parts of the city.
Local administration and private ambulance services were expecting more fatalities during the night. Hundreds of armed police and Rangers were pressed into action to control the violence as emergency was declared in the public sector hospitals.
Eyewitnesses said lawyers demanding restoration of deposed judges clashed with activists of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who were protesting against the maltreatment of former law and parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi in Lahore on Tuesday. The resultant clash left at least seven lawyers injured who were admitted to nearby Civil Hospital. Although a strong contingent of police managed to control the situation, the news of the clash brought armed youths mostly workers and supporters of MQM on to the streets and markets of the city.
Firing indiscriminately in the air MQM supporters forced business houses to close their shops of the main markets of the city and even set on fire several offices of the lawyers located on city’s thoroughfare M.A. Jinnah Road.
The protesters also set fire part of a building adjacent to City Courts where three charred bodies were shifted to hospital. Later a mob of angry youths torched Malir Bar offices.
As the violence spread virtually the entire city became a battle ground and the traffic network came to a standstill with hundreds and thousands of vehicles stranded on the roads with nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, transporters took their buses, taxis and rickshaws off the road leaving thousands of commuters without transportation. Petrol and gas stations owners closed their businesses fearing damage to their properties.