Turf war: One killed, four injured in riots after death of activist in Orangi Town

Bihari was injured in a clash between PPP and MQM on Wednesday.

KARACHI: Orangi Town’s neighbourhoods witnessed more violence as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) activist, Javed alias Bihari, succumbed to injuries on Thursday morning.

Bihari was shot in the abdomen in a clash between PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers over market stalls, said the Pakistan Bazaar SHO Raja Ulfat.

However, the general secretary of PPP’s Karachi division, Najmi Alam, said that supporters of a political party were distributing slips of Zakat and Fitra in Bangla Bazaar area and when Javed Bihari refused to take the slip they shot him and fled. “He [Javed Bihari] was the PPP activist in Orangi Town area and everyone knows his killers because of the extortion racket they run across the city,” said Alam without naming any political party.

As the news of Bihari’s death circulated, angry protestors took to the streets and set two public buses, two shops, and over two dozen carts on fire in Orangi’s Sector 15 and Disco Morr, said West SSP Amir Farooqui.

The residents said that five people, including two women, Farzana and Rani, were injured when the protestors opened fire at a passenger buses. Three men were injured and one of them, identified as Adil alias Babloo, succumbed to his injuries during treatment. The areas around Bangla Bazaar resembled a war zone where the supporters of both political parties fired at each other from time to time.

SSP Farooqui told The Express Tribune that more policemen have been deployed in the area to control the situation. Three people were also arrested and booked for arson.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2012.