KARACHI, 2 June 2005 — The port city of Karachi observed a near complete strike yesterday in response to the strike called by the opposition alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) to protest the killing of its local leader.
Financial markets ignored the strike, but many businesses, including shopping centers, kept shutters down, fearing violence.
Tension continued yesterday in the city as the death toll in Monday’s bombing and riots rose to 13.
“We have seen violence in most of the previous strikes, so I have decided not to open my shop today, just to avoid any risk,” said Abdul Hameed, a shop owner at Karachi’s electronics market. Aslam Mujahid, was tipped to be the MMA candidate for Karachi mayor in upcoming local elections.
Mujahid was kidnapped and later shot dead by an unknown person on Monday, the same day a bomber and two accomplices attacked a Shiite mosque in Karachi, killing five and hurting 20 others.
The shopping malls wore a deserted look while attendance at offices and schools remained thin because of the non-availability of public transportation in most of the areas. Riot-police deployments were seen in a high number throughout the city to keep peace.
After the bombing on the mosque, the city was gripped by unrest that left at least six people and caused property damage.
Despite extra security arrangement by local authorities, an angry mob attacked in different parts of town, setting light to vehicles and damaging public and private properties. At least two people were killed and five wounded in the violence.
According to police, more than 100 rioters were arrested till Tuesday night.
The authorities said they also ascertained the identities of two of three men suspected in Monday’s bombing and they were members of banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. But the suicide bomber had yet to be identified.
Earlier, police had identified one of the suspects as Mohammad Jamil, claiming that he was a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad, an outlawed group that had been involved in militancy in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Investigators suspect the same Al-Qaeda-linked militant group was behind suicide attacks in Islamabad and Karachi in the past week in which at least 24 people died, intelligence officials said yesterday.
The attacks, three days apart, looked like the work of a faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi underground group, said the official.
Five people, including two attackers, died in the attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi on Monday and six employees of US fast food franchise KFC died in subsequent rioting.
Two bombings have taken place since scores of Pakistani clerics and scholars decreed suicide bombings and attacks on mosques in the country in the name of “jihad” as “un-Islamic” two weeks ago.
On Friday, a bomber killed at least 25 people and hurt scores of others in Islamabad.
Suicide bombings have intensified all over Pakistan, particularly in Karachi, since President Pervez Musharraf banned six sectarian and militant groups and joined the US in its war on terror.
