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| India-Pakistan |
| Partial curfew as five more killed in Karachi |
| 2011-01-17 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Partial curfew has been imposed in some areas of Bloody Karachi while the Sindh government has decided to deploy commandos equipped with helicopters to conduct raids in troubled areas after some five people were killed in a fresh wave of political violence in the country's financial hub on Sunday. Neither political dialogue nor security agencies' efforts have been able to check the growing menace of murders in the southern port city, where the corpse count in four consecutive days of violence has reached 29. The Sindh Home Department confirmed 23 killings. "A semi-curfew will be imposed in some areas of Bloody Karachi," Federal Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, told news hounds after meeting top provincial officials in Bloody Karachi. "We are not going to spare them (terrorists)," he said, claiming that a third force was involved in murders. "Our coalition partners, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, Awami National Party's (ANP) Asfandyar Wali and PPP leaders, are deeply concerned and are in consensus to expose the elements hatching conspiracies against the government," the minister added. "It is responsibility of the federal and provincial governments to protect the people," he said, justifying the decision to impose the partial curfew, without disclosing which areas would be affected. Earlier, a high-level meeting, chaired by Malik along with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at his office, decided to increase deployment of police and rangers personnel in the city's "sensitive and grey areas". During the meeting, it was revealed that some criminals, who came from abroad, were involved in murders and some of their accomplices were still hiding in the city. In this respect, the meeting decided to enhance security at the Bloody Karachi airport to monitor suspects and criminals coming from other countries. As per sources, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been assigned this job. It was also decided that raids against those using snatched cellphones would be started, as the criminals mostly used such phones during their activities. According to reports, five people, including two MQM workers, were bumped off on Sunday while an ANP activist, who sustained bullet wounds in Al-Falah area on Saturday, also pegged out. |
| Posted by:Fred |