KARACHI: City tense as Benazir detained in capital
Enraged youths took to the streets in different areas of the city starting from Lyari setting fire to tyres and erecting barricades. As the news of the PPP chairperson’s house arrest spread in Lyari, shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and within a few hours the entire locality was shut down. Youths also set fire to a tyre shop located on the premises of a petrol station in Kharadar.
At Lea Market, police acted against demonstrators by resorting to tear-gas shelling and a baton charge to disperse protesters who were chanting slogans against the government for putting the PPP chairperson under house arrest.
ASI Tahir Mehmood was reportedly injured in Lea Market when a bullet brushed past him, slightly wounding him during the protest. Two other policemen were also reportedly injured in the day-long protest. Similarly, dozens of protesters were also injured during the police’s shelling and baton charge.
At Hasth Chowk, demonstrators set alight tyres and threw stones at passing vehicles in an attempt to suspend traffic in the area. Police encountered stones and occasionally gunfire wherever they turned up to quell the demonstrations.
In the Meranaka area of Lyari, protesters created road blocks and pelted passing vehicles with stones, while similar scenes were witnessed in the area around the Lyari General Hospital, where demonstrators chanted slogans against the detention of Ms Bhutto. Police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.
Police arrested six suspects from Chakiwara and Baghdadi after a two-hour siege and search operation.
SP Lyari Fayyaz Khan described the arrested suspects as “hardened criminals,” each wanted in around a dozen cases. He said that they were firing at the police under the guise of protesters wherever they got the chance. He claimed that the suspects had no political affiliation but were involved in the gang warfare and other criminal activities.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Abid, Zahid alias Diesel, Shahzad, Waseem, Kashif and Nasir KK. Police claimed to have recovered five pistols and an AK-47 rifle from their possession.
Traffic at the National Highway in the jurisdiction of the Shah Latif police station was adversely affected since the afternoon where PPP activists started throwing stones at passing vehicles. Later they erected barricades at the stretch between Quaidabad and the Export Processing Zone turning, where tyres were also set alight.
The protest led to the suspension of traffic between Karachi and up-country through the National Highway for several hours. Police later resorted to tear-gas shelling to disperse the protesters. Similarly at Gaghar Pathak, in the city’s outer limits, hide-and-seek between the demonstrators and police continued till Friday evening as the protesters blocked the highway.
Capital City Police Officer Azhar Ali Farooqi told Dawn around six people were arrested in the city, mainly in the Lyari area, as a result of Friday’s trouble, which largely remained confined to Lyari. No major untoward incident took place in the rest of the city, which remained clam on Friday, the CCPO added.
Meanwhile PPP spokesman Ejaz Durrani said that three party activists were arrested from Gulistan-i-Jauhar where they were setting fire to tyres at Jauhar Morr on Friday.
Explaining the party’s strategy, Mr Durrani said that “We avoided mass arrests as we have to take part in the long march call given for Nov 13. Subsequently, our activists organised protests in a scattered manner in different parts of the city, registering their protest by setting up bonfires,” adding that the activists ventured out in small groups closing down shops and other businesses and suspending traffic.
A PPP statement issued in connection with the protest on Friday said that following the Friday prayers, protesters set fire to tyres at Moosa Lane, Garden, Tower, Denso Hall, Cloth Market, Gizri, Kalapul, Korangi Road, Mehmoodabad, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, University Road, Dalmia Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Quaidabad, Safoora Goth, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, Hub River Road, Hawkesbay Road and other places.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party’s UK media cell in-charge, Habib Jan, on Friday slammed the police action against party supporters in Lyari and other parts of the country.
Mr Jan, who had visited Lyari to inquire about the health of Masi Kulsoom, an elderly resident of the area, claimed that police and paramilitary forces resorted to heavy tear-gas shelling and rounded up an unspecified number of party activists and supporters.
He also slammed the government’s curbs on the media -- both print and electronic.
He appealed to international human rights organisations to “condemn the excesses committed by the state against the people of Pakistan.”