A significant number of casualties result from rampant crime in the city, but the biggest contributor is the menace of targeted killings, motivated by political, religious, and ethnic reasons, a cycle of unabated brutality that finds roots in the 1992 raid as well. It is Pakistan's most violent city, with an estimated 2,029 violence related deaths in 2014.
MQM NEW HEADQUARTERS FULL
Karachi was already a city full of tension prior to the raid. The March 11 raid may trigger a new round of changes in Karachi’s already tense landscape, leaving the city in a heightened state of dread. The only other raid against the MQM was conducted in 1992, and it forever changed the political and administrative landscape of the city. The early-morning raid resulted in the capture of a large cache of weapons, the arrest of 32 suspects including absconding, convicted criminals, and resulted in several injuries and one MQM party worker's death, though the cause of death remains unclear. Following the raid, business and commercial centers shut down, schools closed and even postponed exams, and Karachi, as well as several other cities in Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, came to a standstill. The Rangers deny any abuse.On March 11, Rangers, a paramilitary unit charged with helping curtail the violence in Karachi, raided the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which, along with its competing political party the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has dominated the city since the 1970s. MQM denies the charges and has accused the Rangers of carrying out extra-judicial killings of its members since a crackdown on crime in Karachi began in 2013. The army has long accused the MQM of racketeering, kidnappings for ransom and targeted killings in Karachi. The MQM largely draws its support from the descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who dominate Karachi and other urban centres of southern Sindh province. Many residents have grown increasingly intolerant of MQM's street protests, which can severely disrupt life for millions of Karachi residents.īut the party remains a major electoral force and in December swept local elections, including jailed leader Akhtar. Hussain is known for fiery addresses to his followers in Karachi though a loudspeaker connected to a telephone in his London home. "I was under severe mental stress over extra-judicial arrests and (the) precarious condition of my workers sitting at (a) hunger striking camp." "From the depth of (my) heart, I beg pardon from the Pakistani establishment," he said. In a statement issued from London on Tuesday, Hussain asked for forgiveness from the army and Rangers chiefs. Paramilitary Rangers forces sealed the MQM headquarters and media office on Tuesday. This message is for there (London) and it is for here." "Whatever happened yesterday should not have happened, we condemn it," Sattar told reporters after his release. The supporters later clashed with police outside the television building, leaving one person dead and several wounded. Sattar said that Monday's violence, during which MQM supporters fired shots at the office of a television channel, had been started by Hussain when he criticised Pakistani media in a telephone address to his supporters in Karachi.
MQM NEW HEADQUARTERS TV
Senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar, who was detained on Monday after the attack on the TV channel, sought to distance himself from comments made by the party's influential, firebrand leader Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London. It also comes as Karachi, a metropolis of 20mn people and home to the stock exchange and central bank, is set to formally swear in imprisoned MQM politician, Waseem Akhtar, as mayor on Wednesday. The operation deepens a dispute between Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has dominated Karachi politics for decades, and local security forces that regularly spills into violence. Pakistani paramilitary forces raided the headquarters of a powerful political party in the port city of Karachi on Tuesday after supporters of the party stormed the office of a television channel the day before.
0 kommentar(er)
