KARACHI/ISLAMABAD, 10 April 2008 — Eight people were killed as a result of arson and gunfire during unrest in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Trouble broke out yesterday when rival groups of lawyers clashed in the center of the city.
City police official Syed Sulaiman said officers have recovered four charred bodies from a building set alight during the trouble. Officials say four others died of gunshot wounds.
“It’s a conspiracy against our government,” Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rahman told Arab News.
Co-Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Asif Ali Zardari also denounced the violence saying it was a conspiracy against the new government.
The Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM), a party that holds sway in Karachi and other cities of Sindh, blamed anti-Musharraf lawyers for violence.
“The (anti-Musharraf) lawyers beat Sher Afgan in Lahore and today they beat our lawyers who were holding a peaceful protest in Karachi. This is a shameful act,” Haider Abbas Rizvi, a senior MQM leader said. But law leaders rejected accusation.
“Everyone saw, even mediamen were there, that the MQM-backed lawyers stormed the bar building and ransacked our offices,” Naeem Qureshi, Karachi Bar Association secretary-general said.
“This is an attack on the campaign for the restoration of judiciary and democracy. All this is being done at the behest of the presidency,” KBA President Hassan said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people protesting an assault on a former Cabinet minister and close supporter of President Pervez Musharraf blocked roads and burned tires in his hometown in Punjab yesterday, police said.
About 300 people gathered at a busy intersection in Mianwali, setting tires ablaze and blocking traffic to condemn the Tuesday attack on former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi, said Abdur Razzaq, a Mianwali police officer.
Niazi was not seriously hurt in the attack in the provincial capital of Lahore after a mob of attorneys and others besieged him in an office for several hours.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent anti-Musharraf lawyer and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, tried in vain to disperse the crowd and rescue Niazi. Ahsan announced later that he was resigning as Supreme Court Bar Association president in protest.
The trouble began when irate protesters, including black-suited lawyers, jostled Niazi and tried to beat him with their hands and shoes when he emerged. Police bundled him into an ambulance, which was stoned, and had its ignition key stolen, forcing over-stretched security forces to push it away from the scene.
Television footage showed thick black fumes billowing from tires set on fire yesterday in Mianwali as dozens of men, some wielding sticks, milled about.
Authorities were holding talks with protest leaders to keep things from getting out of control, he said. “The situation is not so tense. They are only expressing their sentiments,” Razzaq said. Niazi called for calm. “For God’s sake, do not do this. Be peaceful,” he said on Express News TV.
The attack on Niazi came a day after another close Musharraf associate, the outgoing chief minister of neighboring Sindh province, was beaten with a shoe and heckled in the provincial legislature.
Musharraf and new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the two attacks.
— With input from agencies
