AFP/Karachi
Ethnic and criminal violence blamed on gangs has killed 92 people in six days as part of the worst criminal and ethnic violence to hit Pakistan’s commercial hub for 16 years, officials said yesterday.
Pakistani paramilitary soldiers patrol a street in troubled Karachi yesterday
“At least 11 people were killed since Sunday evening, so far 92 people have been killed since Wednesday morning,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.
“Many of the bodies were of kidnapped people, tortured and stuffed in gunny sacks thrown elsewhere in the city,” he said. Another government official working in the health department confirmed the casualties.
The government has floundered for solutions to the worst wave of unrest to sweep the city since 1995, with appeals for calm and extra deployments of security forces appearing unable to stem the troubles.
Spiralling unrest is a major source of concern in Pakistan’s biggest city, which is used by Nato to ship the bulk of its supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan and which accounts for around a fifth of the country’s GDP.
The violence has been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the Awami National Party (ANP).
Karachi, a city of 18mn inhabitants and the country’s economic powerhouse, has seen its population explode since independence in 1947.
