Troops told to shoot rioters as death toll mounts in Karachi
Monday, 14 May 2007
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Pakistan's government authorised paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence yesterday as the crisis triggered by the dismissal of Pakistan's top judge took an ominous and bloody turn.
Seven more people were killed yesterday, bringing the death toll from a weekend of violence to 41. President Pervez Musharraf suspended the judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in March but he has since become a focus for protesters trying to end military rule.
The BBC's correspondent in Karachi said five of those killed on Sunday were kidnapped and executed. One of them was a worker from the pro-Musharraf MQM party. Two more were reportedly tortured and then shot in the head.
Funeral processions were accompanied by gun battles, ambulance crews were attacked, and at least two people died in clashes between traditional rivals in Karachi.
Fighting between the Pashtuns, and Urdu-speakers linked to the MQM raised the spectre of a return to ethnic bloodshed in a port city of 15 million people that serves as the hub of Pakistan's economy.
The violence marked a serious escalation in a crisis that began with President Musharraf ousting the head of the supreme court on 9 March, and which has hardened opposition to plans for the general, a key US ally, to extend his rule.
Rallies timed for a visit by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on Saturday sparked gunfights and clashes between supporters and opponents of the government that left corpses in the streets. Officials said a security force of 15,000 was deployed in the city on Saturday but there was no sign that they had intervened to stop the violence. Opposition parties blamed the president and the MQM for the clashes.
Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said it was too early to say who was responsible.
The Sindh Home Secretary Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem said 3,000 extra paramilitary rangers were being called in and that they were authorised to shoot to counter any "major breakdown of law and order".
