One person burnt alive as seven vehicles set ablaze in Karachi

Police claim to have detained over a dozen miscreants as many areas of the city remain tense after firing.

KARACHI:
A mini bus full of passengers was set ablaze near Tower in which one person was burnt alive while up to five others suffered burns injuries as miscreants went on a seeming rampage in the city which saw six other vehicles torched.

According to details, a bus route of W-11 was set ablaze within Jackson police station remits. The bus had passengers on board and the fire killed one of them. Five other also suffered burns injuries. They were rushed to the burns ward at Civil Hospital.

This was not the only incident of vehicles being torched in the city with buses being torched at NIPA, in Korangi, Orangi, North Nazimabad, and Mai Kolachi.

A Suzuki pick up was also reportedly torched at Gaggar Phatak, while a dumper truck was burnt on Super Highway.

Reports of firing from various areas was also received where tensions ran high in Shah Faisal, Gulistan-e- Johar, Gulshan, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Bin Qasim, Steel Town, Gaggar Phatak, Pipri, Ittehad Town, Baldia Town, Malir, Safoora, Sachal, Pehelwan goth, Orangi Town and Sohrab Goth.  Over half a dozen people were also reportedly injured in firing incidents across the city.

Two SHOs of Aziz Bhatti and Steel Town police station were suspended. However, police had also managed to detain over a dozen miscreants.

updated from print edition below.


No transport today: Firing erupts as parties prepare to strike

Sindhi nationalist and religious parties are set to orchestrate a province-wide shutterdown and wheel-jam strike Saturday (today) against the government’s decision to restore the Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2001.

The provincial government’s coalition partners, the Awami National Party (ANP) and National Peoples Party (NPP), are backing it as they argue that the decision to bring back the SLGO was an anti-Sindh move. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Sunni Tehreek and Balochistan National Party (Awami) are also taking part. The Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) has advised its members to stay off the roads as they do not want to be subjected to violence.

“Some men set five buses on fire near Safoora Chowrangi and the government has failed to protect us,” said KTI president Irshad Bukhari.

The nationalist parties, including the Sindh United Party (SUP), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Movement, Sindh National Front, Sindh National Party, Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party, Awami Tehreek and Jeay Sindh Tehreek have decided to launch a ‘Save Sindh Committee’ against what they say is the administrative division of the province.

“We want a peaceful strike but the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders are trying to disrupt the law and order situation by creating a civil war in Sindh,” said SUP’s Jalal Mehmood Shah. “The PPP leaders have asked their party workers to ensure that our strike fails but they have no idea about how the people of Sindh have rejected them.” He added that people who blamed the nationalists for their loss in the union council elections would learn how the people of the province could stand and react against them. Already by Friday night, firing was reported in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulstan-e-Jauhar, Sachal Goth, Malir, Qauidabad, Gadap Town and Bin Qasim Town.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2011.


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