Violence meurtrière à Karachi – mai 2010
25 killed in target killing in Karachi
samaa.tv
20 May 10
KARACHI: At least 25 people were killed and six remained injured in the incidents of target killing in the city, SAMAA reported Thursday.
In the last 24 hours 24 people were killed and six wounded in the firing of unknown gun men in Shah Faisal Colony, Orangi Town, Saddar, and other areas of the city.
Fear prevails in the various areas of the city and most of the major markets have been closed.
In Lucky Star close to Saddar unidentified gunmen unleashed firing on Parado Jeep in which Shafeeq was killed.
After target killing shops in Saddar, Shah Faisal Colony, Orangi Town, Qasba Colony and New Karachi were forced to be closed by armed gunmen and thus tension spread in the areas. However, police and Rangers assumed the control of the areas and started patrolling on Wednesday late evening.
The thin transport was seen on the major roads of the roads on Thursday.
PRESIDENT ZARDARI
President Asif Ali Zardari has taken strict notice of the target killings in the city.
President Zardari has called Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah immediately to Islamabad.
Sindh CM will brief the president on the recent situation in Karachi.
AGENCIES ADD: Rival ethnic-based political factions have clashed in the Pakistani commercial hub of Karachi and at least 17 people have been killed, reviving worries of the return of the violence that plagued the city in the 1990s.
The city of about 18 million people is Pakistan’s main industrial base and home to its main port, stock exchange and central bank. It is also the main gateway for Western military supplies bound for neighbouring land-locked Afghanistan.
Most foreign companies investing in Pakistan also have offices in the city.
Karachi has not been spared Islamist militant violence with several big bomb attacks over the past few years but for many residents, a bigger worry is the return of the factional violence that racked the city for much of the 1990s.
The cause of the latest round of violence was not clear but it involved activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the dominant party in the city, and the rival, ethnic Pashtun-based Awami National Party (ANP).
« Over the past 24 hours, at least 17 people have been killed in targeted attacks as well as in exchanges of fire between rival groups, » Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed told Reuters.
Stock market investors keep a wary eye on the tension and dealers said the latest bloodshed was one reason behind negative sentiment on Thursday with the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index. KSE down 0.50 percent by 0510 GMT.
The MQM draws most of its support from Urdu-speaking descendents of families that moved to Pakistan from India when the sub-continent was divided at the end of British rule in 1947.
Several million Pashtuns have migrated to the city over the years and many of them support the ANP.
Both parties are members of the ruling coalition federal government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari’s party, but they compete for influence in Karachi.
Factional violence has flared occasionally over recent years and scores of people have been killed but it has not spun out of control.
Government officials say criminals, including drug lords competing for turf in the city’s teeming neighbourhoods, take advantage of the tension, exacerbating the difficulties facing the police. SAMAA/AGENCIES
Clashes leave 17 dead in Pakistan’s Karachi
AFP
20 05 2010
KARACHI — At least 17 people including two children have been killed in political clashes in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi in the past two days, a government official and police said Thursday.
Police and paramilitary have been put on high alert and authorities closed all schools and colleges after the latest outbreak of politically related violence in Karachi, the biggest and richest city in Pakistan.
The Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which have a history of bitter relations, say their members were shot dead by rival supporters.
« At least 17 people have died in targeted killings during the past two days, » Jameel Soomro, spokesman of the southern Sindh provincial government, told AFP.
« It seems to be political violence, but we have ordered an inquiry to know the actual reasons behind these killings. »
A police official requesting anonymity said the victims from Tuesday and Wednesday’s unrest included two children and a policeman.
The ANP and MQM are parties in a coalition led by President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ruling Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
MQM represents the Urdu-speaking majority and is Karachi’s dominant party. ANP represents an estimated two million ethnic Pashtuns who have migrated to the city from northwest Pakistan.
The clashes started after gunmen shot dead an ANP worker late Tuesday night, spokesman Soomro said.
In February, similar targeted killings claimed 37 lives of the two parties’ workers.
In January, 48 workers belonging to MQM and the PPP were killed, sparking angry protests and calls for immediate calm from visiting former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Karachi has been largely spared Islamist violence but is plagued by crime and kidnappings, which some analysts say militant groups use to bankroll their insurgency in the northwest.
Many die in Karachi factional violence
bbc.co.uk
Thursday, 20 May 2010
At least 20 people have been killed in violence in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police say.
They say most of the dead were victims of drive-by shootings carried out by unidentified motorcyclists.
The bulk of Wednesday’s violence took place between rival ethnic groups in western and eastern parts of the city.
Correspondents say that while Karachi has not been spared Islamist militant violence in recent months, a bigger worry is factional violence.
The city was wracked by clashes between rival ethnic-based political factions for much of the 1990s in addition to sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis.
Intense gunfire
The provincial government closed all educational institutions in the city on Thursday and school exams were suspended for the day.
Many of the killings were followed by intense gunfire, police say.
Karachi city police chief Waseem Ahmed said that the dead included at least one member of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) party and four members of Awami National Party (ANP).
The MQM is supported by Karachi’s majority Urdu-speaking population whose ancestors migrated from India at the time of Indian partition in 1947. They mostly live in the central parts of the metropolis.
The ANP derives support from the city’s ethnic Pashtun population, which is spread across its western and eastern parts.
The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the two parties have accused each other of carrying out targeted killings since 2007.
A number of ANP workers were killed in May 2007 when the MQM allegedly resorted to violence to prevent Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry – who at the time had been suspended by military ruler Pervez Musharraf – from addressing lawyers in Karachi. President Musharraf was supported by the MQM.
ANP Sindh province head Shahi Said said that Wednesday’s killings were part of an « ongoing process of ethnic cleansing » of Pashtuns in Karachi.
He said the killings were perpetrated by the « same people who were responsible for the 12 May (2007) killings » – a clear reference to the MQM.
But in an official statement on Wednesday night, the MQM blamed the killings on « infighting » between the ANP and those campaigning for a separate Hazara province in the north of the country.
The ANP governs what was known as North West Frontier Province but which last month changed its name to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The party was in the forefront of the campaign for the name change, which was vigorously resisted by people in the Hazara region.
Our correspondent says that people from both regions have a considerable presence in Karachi
anthropologie du présent 