World | Pakistan
Bhutto supporters shot dead in Pakistan chaos
Three supporters of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto were shot dead, while angry mobs set fire to properties for a third day.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:23 December 29, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- A paramilitary soldier stands guard on a street of Bhutto's home town of Larkana.
Karachi: Three supporters of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto were shot dead on Saturday, one by masked gunmen and two others by security forces
as a mob tried to force itself into an oilfield, police said.
In a separate incident, four men were shot dead and seven
others wounded in a district of the southern financial hub of
Karachi, a hospital official said, as the death toll since
Bhutto's assassination on Thursday hit 44, including four
police.
The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan cited President
Pervez Musharraf as saying elements looting and plundering
should be dealt with firmly.
The killings in the southern province of Sindh, Bhutto's
political stronghold, came as protesters torched shops, lorries,welfare centres and ambulances overnight as violence entered a third day.
The masked gunmen shot dead the 27-year-old man was wearing a tunic made from a Pakistan People's Party flag and had just shouted "Bhutto is great" while returning from Bhutto's mausoleum.
"Two gunmen were waiting in a vehicle, their faces covered, and they opened fire," said Shaukat Ali Shah, deputy inspector general of police in the city of Hyderabad in Sindh.
Meanwhile, police in Hyderabad, under orders to shoot violent protesters on sight, wounded two protesters among a group burning tyres on the street.
"There's a lot of rioting going on in my neighbourhood, Clifton. Everything has been burned up. Shops have been looted," said Ali Khan in Karachi.
Karachi and Sindh were virtually deserted as armed police and paramilitary forces patrolled streets. Shops and petrol stations were closed.
Sindh home secretary Ghulam Mohtaram said rioters had burned or damaged 947 vehicles, 131 banks and 31 petrol stations.
Separately, a spokesman for the Al Qaida leader the government blamed for Bhutto's murder denied involvement.
Bhutto's party dismissed the official explanation, saying the government was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.
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