Karachi smoulders after political killings

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

KARACHI (AFP) - Security forces patrolled Karachi Sunday after two days of violent clashes over the suspension of Pakistan's chief justice left 36 people dead.

The government ordered extra troops into the volatile port city amid fears of more unrest sparked by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to sack chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Two people were killed on Sunday, as city police chief Azhar Farooqi described the situation was "very tense."

Protesters blocked the main highway with burning tyres and pelted vehicles with stones, police and witnesses said.

In the latest bloodshed, a policeman was killed on Sunday in the Mangopir neighbourhood, west of Karachi.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070513/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanjusticeprotest

[ohio2007]

1. 37 die in Pakistani political violence

<snip>
Unrest broke out Sunday in several ethnic Pashtun-dominated neighborhoods of the city, and "unknown people" fatally shot a man, police officer Shad Masih said. Police dispersed a crowd in the area using tear gas, he said.

<snip>

Newspaper editorials on Sunday lamented the descent into chaos and violence. "It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," said the respected Dawn daily.

The front-page headline in The News referred to a "Karachi bloodbath."

<snip>
"My heart was weeping when I saw that people were dying, they were being killed, they were being martyred," he told a crowd marshaled by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party.

On Sunday, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said there was no "definite proof" of who was involved in the rioting and that the prime minister and the provincial government have ordered separate inquiries.

<snip>
A private TV network accused MQM activists of peppering its building with gunfire because of its live coverage of the violence. The channel stayed on the air as rioters torched vehicles outside.

Witnesses said that shipping containers, trucks and oil tankers, many with deflated tires, had been parked on key roads in Karachi overnight, including those leading to the airport — apparently to obstruct Chaudhry's supporters.

The violence trapped Chaudhry at the airport. He returned to Islamabad late Saturday without addressing the rally. An MQM rally went ahead as planned.

The push to reinstate Chaudhry as chief justice has galvanized Pakistan's fractious opposition parties and amounts to the biggest challenge to Musharraf's rule since his 1999 coup.

The judge was appointed in 2005 and has a reputation for challenging the government, including over its plans to privatize state industry and unexplained detentions of terror suspects.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_judicial_crisis;_ylt=Ag1v.fEChi0gHimJkuLKrjv9xg8F

Looks like a civil war
quacks like a civil war....

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Pakistan is about to explode into open rebellion. Wonder what our dear government will do to

defend our 'closest' ally.

[ohio2007]

3. We did supply the worlds largest democracy with

military hardware recently and as an ongoing strategy.....

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/ambfeb52007.html

They are a democracy you know

[sinkingfeeling]

4. If you want to call it that. I would call it a dictatorship.

Musharraf became de facto Head of Government (using the title Chief Executive and assuming extensive powers) of Pakistan following a bloodless coup d'état on 12 October 1999. That day, the constitutional Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempted to dismiss Musharraf and install Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Senior Army Generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Sharif ordered the Karachi airport closed to prevent the landing of the airliner, which then circled the skies over Karachi. In the coup, the Generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with allegedly only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf assumed control of the government. Sharif was put under house arrest and later exiled. He and other leaders have subsequently been prevented from entering Pakistan.

Shortly after Musharraf's takeover, several people filed court petitions challenging his assumption of power. On May 12, 2000, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Musharraf to hold general elections by October 12, 2002. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the approaching restoration of democracy, he held a referendum on April 30, 2002 to extend his presidential term to five years after the October elections. However, the referendum was boycotted by the majority of Pakistani political groupings, which later complained that the elections were heavily rigged, and voter turnout was 30% or below by most estimates. A few weeks later, Musharraf went on TV and apologized and cried to the nation for "irregularities" in the referendum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Musharraf

[Eugene]

5. I think he was referring to India.

Fighting a fire with gasoline is the Bush way.

[cliss]

7. Answer = not much.

Even if Washington wanted to do nice things for their Bestest Buddy, there's nothing they can do.

We are absolutely, positively, tapped out in Iraq & Afghanistan. We're broke as it is, trying desperately to hang on to the oil which is slipping out of our grasp.

[Eugene]

6. Pakistani paramilitary told to shoot rioters

Source: Reuters

Pakistani paramilitary told to shoot rioters
13 May 2007 13:57:10 GMT
Source: Reuters

KARACHI, May 13 (Reuters) - The Pakistani government authorised
paramilitary troops on Sunday to shoot anyone involved in serious
violence in the city of Karachi, where 36 people have been killed
over the past two days, an official said.

"We have increased the presence of Rangers in the city and have
told them to arrest or shoot anyone involved in violence and riots
threatening life or property," Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah
told Reuters.


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL5809.htm

[TexasLawyer]

8. Editorial from a Pakistan paper

Unanswered questions

With the death toll now 36 and still rising, hundreds injured and extensive property damage instigated by organized groups of armed men, the blame game has already begun. The opposition and the lawyers' groups are accusing the government of deliberately unleashing the violence to undermine their movement.

<snip>

The weekend's deadly events, which reminded one of Karachi's bloody days in the early nineties, raise several questions and answers are needed. Why did the police and the Rangers fail to take action to prevent the carnage? Who ordered the barricading of the city's main artery and several other roads and for what purpose? Who were the heavily armed groups of armed men wandering about boisterously around the city on that fateful day? What was achieved by preventing the chief justice's reception at the Sindh High Court bar?

Is there any truth in the MQM's claim that the opposition is out to destabilize the city as part of a sinister conspiracy? Do the federal and Sindh governments think that what happened on Saturday was in the interest of the country, especially considering that the centre considers Karachi to be the lynchpin of its claimed economic turnaround and ongoing recovery?

And finally, what message is given to ordinary Pakistanis, the outside world and those behind the violence when the state chooses to abdicate from its duty to provide security to its citizens in as blatant a manner as seen over the weekend?

<snip>

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=55835

[maddezmom]

9. Pakistan city virtually shut down after strike call

KARACHI (Reuters) - Shops were closed and public transport off the streets of Karachi on Monday after nearly 40 people were killed and about 150 wounded in Pakistan's worst political street violence in two decades.

The authorities have banned demonstrations in the city and declared a public holiday. The opposition called for a protest strike.

The weekend violence began when Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to meet supporters in the southern city.

The government on Sunday authorized paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city that has a long history of bloody feuding between ethnic-based political factions.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070514/wl_nm/pakistan_dc