KARACHI, 1 July — The government deployed troops in the violence-racked city of Karachi yesterday after a second killing ahead of local body elections that begin tomorrow, police said.

Abdul Shakoor, a worker of the Pakistan Muslim League was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Friday. The victim Ghazi Abdus Shakoor, 76, a resident of Pak Colony had worked with the country’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah during the independence movement in the 40s. He was gunned down by two unidentified motorcyclists near his bakery.

Army troops and paramilitary Rangers patrolled the streets of this southern port city, the country’s largest. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has already warned those trying to disrupt elections would be dealt with sternly.

“The army has completed deployment of troops in Karachi” for the elections, said Col. Ashfaq Hussain, an army spokesman. He said the number deployed was “classified information.”

The polling in Karachi and several other large cities will mark the end of elections for local bodies that began in December.

Meanwhile, the city remained tense as more candidates received death threats and the specter of violence loomed ahead.

Officials said they were concerned as death warnings weighed on the election process and is likely to result in poor turnout.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and its rival Haqiqi faction — both commanding overwhelming support in Karachi — have boycotted the polls. The MQM secretary-general, Dr. Imran Farooq, appealed to the people yesterday to stay indoors on the polling day on July 2.

Police and paramilitary Rangers raided the Haqiqi headquarters in Landhi, on the outskirts of the city, yesterday morning and rounded up some two dozens of its supporters believed to be involved in hurling threats to candidates and their workers. “We are keeping a watch on miscreants and those trying to sabotage the civic elections, said the Sindh chief secretary, Javed Ashraf, after a meeting yesterday.

Witnesses said policemen scaled the walls to jump into the houses of Haqiqi workers and allegedly misbehaved with women.

Officials said police seized explosives in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, a new area in the District East, believed to have been stashed by miscreants to bomb polling stations on the election day. Two people were arrested, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court, has put off hearing of the cases filed by the two MQM factions against the holding of elections on  July 2.

A decision on the petition was expected on Friday but the judges said the court would take up the case later. Haqiqi Chairman Amir Khan accused the court of using delaying tactics.

About a dozen political parties including the JUP, Jamaat-e- Islami, the PPP and the breakaway faction of the Pakistan Muslim League have forged an alliance to secure maximum number of seats in a city where victory has eluded them since the MQM held sway in 1987.

Officials and political commentators said yesterday authorities may have wangled a temporary pledge from the MQM against disrupting the July 2 elections but the party has not signed away its right to play the spoiler.

Officials, quoting intelligence sources, say the urban-based party is keen to show its strength and sway the voting public away from those parties who would have otherwise benefited from the MQM’s decision to boycott the election.

Party insiders too claim that the MQM does not wish to see the poll candidates win the election by impressive margins in the absence of MQM candidates.

To reinforce its poll boycott message to the public, the MQM has circulated thousands of leaflets in neighborhoods across the city. These leaflets call upon the registered voters to stay away from polling booths. It is not known whether these leaflets were printed before the MQM reached an understanding with the government against interfering in the electoral exercise.

The local print media yesterday splashed the news that MQM activists were standing in the election from constituencies in the Central and East districts. But these papers could not explain why the MQM activists had flouted their party’s high command.

Unnamed political party candidates in the elections have been quoted in yesterday’s papers as saying that they had been receiving threatening calls from unidentified individuals.