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Source: DTN News / The New York Times By Salman Masood (NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan- August 4, 2010: A wave of violence after the assassination of a senior politician on 
Monday has left at least 47 people dead in Pakistan’s largest city, the southern port of Karachi.
The violence erupted after the politician, Raza Haider, a provincial lawmaker and the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was shot to death along with his bodyguard.
Within hours, mobs spread out across Karachi, setting fire to public and private property, including dozens of vehicles. Business centers were forced to shut down. Normal life has since come to a virtual standstill, and schools and government offices remained closed on Tuesday.
President Asif Ali Zardari ordered an immediate inquiry into the assassination, according to the presidential spokesman, Farhatullah Babar.
Karachi, a sprawling city of more than 16 million people, has a long history of sectarian and ethnic violence, as well as violent political clashes over the economic spoils and ties to criminal syndicates that come with political control of the city.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or M.Q.M., controls the city government with the support of Urdu speakers who migrated to Pakistan after partition in 1947. The party has been criticized for its strong-arm tactics in the past.
Most of those killed since Monday have been ethnic Pashtuns, who have migrated to Karachi in increasing numbers from the north, where the army has opened a series of campaigns against the Pakistani Taliban in recent years.
The Taliban are mostly Pashtun, and the influx to Karachi has led to charges by the M.Q.M. and its supporters of a creeping “Talibanization” of the city.
In recent months, the M.Q.M. has clashed violently with the Awami National Party, a political party that draws its strength from the Pashtuns in the city and elsewhere.
The M.Q.M. says 150 of its workers have been killed in the past three weeks. Local news media have reported that at least 300 people have been the victims of political killings in Karachi this year.
Pakistani analysts say the struggle between the parties may be one for spoils.
“The current violence could have to do with a battle that is political but could also have to do with the various vested interests that have a stake in the criminalized system that runs Karachi — in terms of say, land, water and revenue generation and apportionment,” said Omar R. Quraishi, editor of the editorial pages of The Express Tribune, an English-language newspaper in Karachi.
Nasreen Jalil, a senior leader of the M.Q.M. and a former deputy mayor of the city, blamed leadership of the Awami National Party in Karachi for supporting the Taliban and other militants working with drug traffickers and land-grabbing gangs operating in the city.
“We have pointed out several times that Taliban are present in Karachi,” Ms. Jalil said in an interview.
“They are residing in Pashtun localities, most of which are illegally occupied by land mafia,” she said. “Many Pashtuns are involved in drug trade, selling arms and ammunitions. Whenever there is an anti-encroachment drive, killings increase in the city in retaliation.”
Leaders of the Awami National Party deny the allegations.
Ms. Jalil also blamed some elements of President Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party for supporting criminal gangs in the city.
Rehman Malik, the country’s interior minister, on Tuesday blamed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned militant group, which is involved in a series of terrorist attacks against Shiites and other minorities, for the assassination that set off the violence.
Responding to the interior minister’s claims, Ms. Jalil said that Islamic militants had joined hands with the local A.N.P. leadership. “It is syndicate,” she said. “A council of criminal elements.”
Pakistan Related News;
Monday has left at least 47 people dead in Pakistan’s largest city, the southern port of Karachi.
The violence erupted after the politician, Raza Haider, a provincial lawmaker and the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was shot to death along with his bodyguard.
Within hours, mobs spread out across Karachi, setting fire to public and private property, including dozens of vehicles. Business centers were forced to shut down. Normal life has since come to a virtual standstill, and schools and government offices remained closed on Tuesday.
President Asif Ali Zardari ordered an immediate inquiry into the assassination, according to the presidential spokesman, Farhatullah Babar.
Karachi, a sprawling city of more than 16 million people, has a long history of sectarian and ethnic violence, as well as violent political clashes over the economic spoils and ties to criminal syndicates that come with political control of the city.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or M.Q.M., controls the city government with the support of Urdu speakers who migrated to Pakistan after partition in 1947. The party has been criticized for its strong-arm tactics in the past.
Most of those killed since Monday have been ethnic Pashtuns, who have migrated to Karachi in increasing numbers from the north, where the army has opened a series of campaigns against the Pakistani Taliban in recent years.
The Taliban are mostly Pashtun, and the influx to Karachi has led to charges by the M.Q.M. and its supporters of a creeping “Talibanization” of the city.
In recent months, the M.Q.M. has clashed violently with the Awami National Party, a political party that draws its strength from the Pashtuns in the city and elsewhere.
The M.Q.M. says 150 of its workers have been killed in the past three weeks. Local news media have reported that at least 300 people have been the victims of political killings in Karachi this year.
Pakistani analysts say the struggle between the parties may be one for spoils.
“The current violence could have to do with a battle that is political but could also have to do with the various vested interests that have a stake in the criminalized system that runs Karachi — in terms of say, land, water and revenue generation and apportionment,” said Omar R. Quraishi, editor of the editorial pages of The Express Tribune, an English-language newspaper in Karachi.
Nasreen Jalil, a senior leader of the M.Q.M. and a former deputy mayor of the city, blamed leadership of the Awami National Party in Karachi for supporting the Taliban and other militants working with drug traffickers and land-grabbing gangs operating in the city.
“We have pointed out several times that Taliban are present in Karachi,” Ms. Jalil said in an interview.
“They are residing in Pashtun localities, most of which are illegally occupied by land mafia,” she said. “Many Pashtuns are involved in drug trade, selling arms and ammunitions. Whenever there is an anti-encroachment drive, killings increase in the city in retaliation.”
Leaders of the Awami National Party deny the allegations.
Ms. Jalil also blamed some elements of President Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party for supporting criminal gangs in the city.
Rehman Malik, the country’s interior minister, on Tuesday blamed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned militant group, which is involved in a series of terrorist attacks against Shiites and other minorities, for the assassination that set off the violence.
Responding to the interior minister’s claims, Ms. Jalil said that Islamic militants had joined hands with the local A.N.P. leadership. “It is syndicate,” she said. “A council of criminal elements.”
Pakistan Related News; *Analysis: Karachi attack 'a trap to destabilize Pakistan' National Post
*Karachi police arrest 'jihadists' BBC News
*Indian Express - Bloomberg - The Associated Press - Asia Times Online - Wikipedia: 2010 *Karachi riots
*Afghan War Is Being Lost, Pakistani President Says (August 4, 2010)
*Times Topic: Pakistan
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