Decision
to impose the partial curfew was made by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and
Chief Minister Sayed Qaim Ali Shah after rejecting proposal from one of the
coalition partners in Sindh government, the Awami National Party, which
demanded that the riot-torn city should be hand over to army.
Tensions
are high between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National
Party (ANP), which each represents rival communities in Karachi, a city
straddling political fault lines.
“A
semi-curfew will be imposed in some areas of Karachi,” Interior Minister Rehman
Malik said in a brief televised interview with reporters, after meeting top
officials in Karachi.
Malik did
not explain what he meant by “semi-curfew,” but Sindh Home Ministry spokesman
Sharfuddin Memon said, “It is for the authorities to decide for how long they
would like a troubled area to remain under curfew.”
Malik also
called the MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London to assure him that those involved
in the killing of his party activists will be arrested soon.
Dozens of
suspects linked to the killings have been rounded up, with extra police and
paramilitary rangers deployed in Karachi’s trouble-prone western neighborhoods.
“It is
responsibility of the federal and provincial governments to protect the
people,” Malik said, justifying the decision to impose the partial curfew,
without disclosing which areas would be affected.
Malik
also said, without elaborating, that there was “a third element trying to
deteriorate the situation in Karachi.”
— With
input from agencies
