Karachi, February 01: In a renewed wave of sectarian and ethnic killings in Pakistan, at least 10 people were killed in the last 24 hours in southern Sind’s provincial capital, the police said Tuesday.
Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan said 10 people had been killed since Monday and admitted some of the target killings appeared to be because of sectarian disputes.
Security has been beefed up and a ban has been imposed on pillion riding in the city as a precautionary measure, he told a press conference here.
He said police and paramilitary rangers had carried out raids in different parts of the city and rounded up some 50 to 60 suspects who were being interrogated.
The victims in the latest series of bloody violence included the wife, daughter and driver of Mir Bakht Yar Domki, the sitting lawmaker from Sibi in the restive Balochistan province.
They were gunned down late last night near the Gizri bridge in the upmarket Clifton area while they were returning home after attending a wedding.
City police chief Ayaz Ghorchani said the killings appeared to be the result of a family enmity which are common in Baluchistan.
The day began with a bloody incident in the densely populated Nazimabad area where gunmen attacked a telecom company franchise, killing a young girl who was employed there and a security guard and wounding others.
Hours later gunmen killed a doctor who was on his way home in the Malir area spreading fear and panic in the city. Earlier in the day a Shia, Taseer Abbas Zaidi, was gunned down in the Gulberg area leading to protesters blocking roads and attacking the law enforcement agencies and media personal to vent their anger.
Political and security analysts have put the latest killings down to sectarian and ethnic violence. The day ended with another bloody incident near the Governor House and Karachi Press Club when a protest rally by government teachers employed on contracts was baton-charged and tear gassed by police. It left several teachers injured. The wife of the lawmaker was the granddaughter of slain Baloch separatist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti who was killed by security forces in 2005 in the troubled southwestern province.
“Now even our women are not safe. We don’t expect any justice from the government but we will get justice from God,” a grieving Domki told reporters.
The renewed violence has taken the toll in sectarian killings in the restive city to around 50 in January, the citizens police liason committee said.
At least 25 people had been killed over the last week, mostly as part of sectarian conflict between Pakistan’s majority Sunni and minority Shia Muslim communities, a police official said.
The victims included three Shia Muslim lawyers and two doctors.
Pakistan’s financial capital last year witnessed its worst ethnic and political unrest in 16 years, with around 350 people killed in July-August.
–PTI