KARACHI: Violent clashes broke out between workers of rival political parties outside offices of the district returning officers on Wednesday forcing police in the metropolis to intervene and launch baton charge to stop the situation from getting out of control.

The clashes erupted when official results of the Jan 15 local government elections were being consolidated inside the offices of the district returning officers.

The clashes took place in Malir, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Baldia Town and Keamari involving workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The PTI also staged a sit-in in Qayyumabad, SITE, while the JI staged demonstrations on University Road and Malir.

The blockade of main arteries caused multiple traffic jams across the city causing hardship to a large number of motorists and commuters.

Several injured, vehicles damaged; police baton-charge protesters

PTI-PPP workers clash in Keamari

In district Keamari, PTI and PPP workers clashed outside the office of the DRO/DC of Keamari and pelted each others with stones due to which several people, including journalists, suffered injuries.

Speaking to Dawn, PTI leader Ali Zaidi said and also stated in his tweet: “I had gone to meet my candidates and talk to the press at DC Keamari office. The PPP goons prepared with stones and under full protection of Sindh police attacked. Media men and PTI workers sustained injuries. After MQM’s reign of terror, may be Karachi should now prepare for ‘Zardari Mafia’”.

Keamari deputy commissioner Mukhtiar Abro, who is also the DRO, told Dawn that PTI workers besieged his office and Mr Zaidi and others forcibly entered the office and broke the locks of the revenue record and ransacked the computers and other stuff.

They adopted “hooliganism against the staff, including female ROs (returning officers) who were busy in performing their electoral duty”, he alleged.

He said the PTI workers also pelted them with stones and smashed glasses of vehicles.He said policemen took action and forced them out of the office.

PPP Sindh leader and Senator Waqar Mehdi said that the electoral staff was compiling results when PTI workers led by Ali Zaidi, Bilal Ghaffar and others resorted to hooliganism and attacked PPP workers, who were also present there.

He accused the PTI of creating a chaos in the metropolis as they could not ‘accept’ their defeat in recently held LG polls.

Meanwhile, Dunya News Karachi bureau chief Talha Hashmi told Dawn that their reporter Ali Mehdi and cameraman Farhan Ahmed suffered head injuries by pelting of stones during the PTI-PPP clash.

Keamari SSP Fida Husain Janwari on Wednesday night said that workers of the PTI, who were detained during clash, were released.

PPP-JI clashes in Baldia, Malir

Workers of the JI and PPP clashed in Baldia Town-9, causing injuries to five persons.

In Malir, workers of the PPP and JI clashed with each other outside the office of DRO Malir during recounting of vote on a Gulshan-i-Hadeed UC won by the JI.

The JI leaders said that the recounting was based on ‘mala fide intentions’.

Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur told media that the police have controlled the situation and dispersed the workers.

JI Malir chief Mohammed Islam told the media that an armed person resorted to firing on party workers outside the office of DC-Malir.

JI protest on University Road causes gridlock

JI workers protested on University Road outside Urdu Federal University against alleged manipulation of the result on a union committee of Gulshan Town and two UCs of Safoora Town in district East during recounting.

The workers lit bonfires and blocked the main artery for vehicular traffic. The protest caused a massive traffic jam on University Road and adjoining arteries.

Heavy contingents of the police rushed to the spot to pacify the protesters.

JI spokesperson Sohaib Ahmed stated in a statement that the police resorted to baton-charge their ‘peaceful’ workers to protect rigging by the Sindh government and the PPP.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023