KARACHI, 13 April 2006 — Mobs of youths rioted in Karachi for a second straight day yesterday to protest the suicide bombing that killed at least 57 people, which a top Pakistani official said was aimed at “eliminating” the leadership of a moderate group.
Paramilitary troops patrolled the deserted streets of the port city yesterday to prevent any fresh violence. “The army has been put on alert and can be deployed at short notice,” a senior government official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Police yesterday confirmed that a lone unidentified suicide bomber detonated a five kilogram (11 pound) bomb near the leaders seated in a downtown Karachi park Tuesday at a religious congregation with 10,000 other people. The congregation was organized by moderate Sunni groups including the Tehrik group, whose two top leaders and a third senior official were among the 57 people killed, including the bomber.
Amid soaring sectarian tensions, hundreds of security forces blocked main roads and shut schools throughout Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, to prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s riots that broke out after the suicide bombing.
But a group of youths, apparently supporters of the Tehrik group, rampaged through a neighborhood, setting fire to a bus and two cars and smashing shop windows before police forces, aided by local clerics, brought the situation under control, said area police chief Shah Nawaz Khan.
Funerals for many of the victims were held throughout Karachi attended by up to 5,000 people. Some chanted “God is Great, and our leaders have attained martyrdom.”
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest ever in Pakistan, a close US ally in its war on terror.
“We cannot pinpoint anyone at this stage,” said Karachi police chief Niaz Siddiqui. “The investigation is following different avenues.”
But Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the bombing was aimed at “eliminating the leadership” of the influential Tehrik group.
Numerous Tekrik leaders, including its founder, have been killed since forming more than seven years ago.
At a tense press conference, senior Tehrik leader Mohammed Shahid Ghauri gave Pakistani authorities 48 hours to catch the culprits, “otherwise we are able to respond in various ways.” He did not elaborate.
Ghauri also called for the bombing investigation to be headed by Pakistan’s military intelligence services and demanded the provincial Sindh government be sacked for “failing to keep the peace.”
“The government did not provide enough security at the park and only a token police presence was there,” said Shah Turabul Haq, who heads another moderate group, Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat. “This is sheer terrorism aimed at weakening moderate Muslims.”
Shopkeepers in Multan, a Punjab provincial city 370 kilometers north of Karachi, closed their doors to protest the bombing, while about 150 students staged a noisy rally at a busy intersection in the capital, Islamabad. “We demand answers for the blood of these martyrs,” the students chanted.
