HYDERABAD, April 10: Awami Tehrik activists held a demonstration outside the press club here on Thursday in protest against the killing of innocent people, including lawyers, in Karachi and torching of vehicles and buildings.

Talking to newsmen, AT chief Rasool Bux Palijo held the Muttahida Qaumi Movement responsible for the violence and said that the violence unleashed in Karachi was aimed at strengthening dictatorship and protecting tens of thousands of acres of land and thousands of jobs given to MQM supporters. He accused the Pakistan People’s Party of being a party to these atrocities.

Mr Palijo said that he wondered as to what army, Rangers and police were doing when innocent people were being killed and burnt alive.

He came hard on the PPP leadership and said that the PPP leaders had gone to ‘90’ to pardon the previous killings and given the MQM a licence to commit more murders.

The Sindh Democratic Forum also condemned the Karachi killings and torching of vehicles and blamed the MQM for the incidents of violence.

Talking to reporters outside the press club, SDF leaders Abrar Qazi, Zulfiqar Halepoto, Ibrahim Joyo and Mehboob Abro said that it was the considered opinion of the civil society in the country, especially Sindh, that the acts of violence in Karachi were carried out at the behest of the dictator.

Earlier, they held a protest demonstration which was attended by a large number of civil society members.

They said that the elected democratic governments were hardly in place when the capital of Sindh was turned into an inferno.

They said that the acts of violence were aimed at blackmailing the Sindh government and put more pressure on it to give more concessions to the MQM.

The SDF leaders appealed to the people of Pakistan and the entire world to help the democratic government to get rid of terrorists and terrorism.

They urged the Sindh government to immediately dissolve the Karachi city government, divide Karachi into seven districts, including Lyari and Manghopir, and restore the original status of Hyderabad district.

MQM VERSION: Hyderabad MQM zonal in-charge Mohammad Sharif and members of the zonal committee have condemned killing and beating of lawyers in Karachi.

In a joint statement, they said that it was disappointing that offices of lawyers were burnt and from there charred bodies were recovered.

They said that once again peaceful environment was being vitiated to sabotage development works in Karachi by those elements who did not want development in Karachi, Sindh and Pakistan.

They added that the lawyers wanted to resort to lawlessness to make courts subservient to their will.