Islamabad, August 17: Twelve people have been killed in fresh cases of shooting in the violence-plagued city of Karachi after a few days of relative calm, according to reports yesterday.
Influential Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party said one of its workers and a sympathiser were among the victims and demanded swift action by the law enforcement agencies to arrest the culprits.
Assailants shot dead two people yesterday in Karachi’s Orangi Township, one of the badly affected areas in a wave of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives since the beginning of July in the biggest city and capital of southern Sindh province.
Ten killings took place on Monday including eight in North Nazimabad, Jaffar Tayar Society, Landhi and Joharabad.
Another two, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed the same day in seperate incidents of shooting in the Orangi Town area.
A total of more than 1,300 people have been killed in violence in Karachi over the past seven and a half months of the current year, published data shows.
The province is ruled by a coalition led by the Pakistan People’s Party, including Awami National Party. MQM is the second largest party in Sindh. Apart from across-the-board action by the law enforcers against miscreants, concerted efforts by the three political parties are widely considered vital for establishing durable pace in Karachi.
PPP’s home minister in Sindh, Manzour Wassan said on Monday he was hopeful the MQM would rejoin the government during the current week. The party had withdrawn from the coalition in June.
Killings
Even earlier on Saturday, at least two people were killed in a handgrenade attack near a hotel and one body was found in a sack in Karachi. The body packed in a sack was recovered from a vehicle in Thakistan area.
In a separate incident, two people were killed and five injured after some unidentified people fired handgrenades near a hotel.
On August 5, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said over 800 people were killed in ethnic, sectarian and political violence in Karachi this year.
—Agencies