Karachi violence claims seven lives

Unidentified gunmen struck twice in the violence-plagued port city of Karachi yesterday, killing seven people and wounding two others most of whom belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – a coalition partner of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali's government.

In the first attack, MQM's senior activists, Naveed Murtaza and Asif Beg, died on the spot when gunmen ambushed their car and fire with automatic weapons early yesterday morning when they were returning home after attending a marriage, police said.

Hundreds of people attended their funeral later in the day condemning the killing, witnesses said. Dr. Imran Farooq, MQM's self-exiled leader and convener of the party, in a statement from London described it as a targeted killing.

In the evening, the gunmen hit for the second time opening fire at the group of mourners who had gathered outside the residence of the brother-in-law of the victims killed in the morning. Five people were killed and two were wounded in the attack, Aftab Sheikh, a senior MQM leader and adviser on interior to Sindh province chief minister, told reporters.

Those who were killed included Qari Yaqoob, a cleric, Saeed, Noman, Tayyab and Jibran. All of them were either party sympathisers or relatives of the victims, he said.

The cleric was standing at the doorway of the mosque and may have been caught in the cross-fire.

Tariq Jameel, the city police chief, said the assailants were riding on motorcycles and a car.
"They opened indiscriminate firing on the mourners. We are investigating, but no arrest have been made so far."

Sheikh said the attacks were linked and were part of a big conspiracy.

A MQM lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that whenever "hidden forces" try to de-stabilise or remove an elected government, MQM is made the target of violence. He did not elaborate.

Jameel, the police official, said security has been beefed in all the volatile neighbourhoods. "Police are setting up more pickets and plans to increase patrolling," he said.

So far no group claimed the responsibility of the attack which occurred after a relative decline in violence in the last few months.