Express News screengrab.
On February 7, MQM had announced that a day of mourning would be observed today (Saturday) to register their protest against the killing of a party worker in Karachi.
Shops started to open in Karachi at around 2pm after the MQM Rabita Committee asked business owners in Sindh to reopen their establishments.
Most shops and businesses were closed and attendance at schools was low in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. Public transport was not operating and there was little traffic on roads in all three cities.
Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) had announced on February 7 that it would keep its vehicles off the road on Saturday.
Petrol pumps throughout the cities were also closed today.
Black cloths were hung outside MQM offices in Sukkur today as a sign of mourning.
'Extrajudicial killings'
Unidentified men had allegedly kidnapped Muhammad Salman on February 3. His mutilated body was found a day later from the Shah Latif Town of Landhi.
Addressing a press conference, MQM leaders had claimed that Salman was a victim of extra judicial killings by the LEAs. They had demanded registration of a case against police chief Shahid Hayat for failing to tackle the situation.
“Since last year, 45 of our workers have gone missing, 40 went missing since the operation started. Ten activists have been victims to extrajudicial killings,” MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi had said.
He said that the party had no other way except to protest and observe days of mourning.
COMMENTS (23)
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@Urban Legend: what tells you I am a Pashtun?Stop looking at everything through the prism of ethnicity.And if the leader of the Pashtuns had actually said it,i condemn him and anyone having any kind of bias towards mohajirs.Having said that,i consider the quota system in Sindh a big farce against the Urdu speaking population of Sindh.
@ ET Moderator Dear Sir/Madam, please show some responsibility in journalism and stop approving hate parochial words in the posts. Just an appeal !
@John: Pashtuns.... Aren't you the ones who contested against Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah in 1965 and used iron fist in Karachi against innocent and very weak migrants (now alhumdullah strong mahajirs) and wasn't it your leader who said that for mahajirs, there is only ocean???
You get what you sow! Mahajirs are humans who made this country and can't be dealt like your ria'aya.
@Karachiwalla: Karachi is for Pashtuns as much as it is for Mohajirs,Sindhis,Balochis and Punjabis.If someone has a problem with that,they can go back to where they came from,thankyou
@ahmed ali: would you mind elaborating what does accepting the mandate means to MQM? You couldn't form your government in the province despite all sorts of cheating. Now sit down, relax and wait for the next general elections. Period
You only criticise PTI. Cowards.
@usman786...can some one make rule there will be no extra-judicial killing in karachi and mandate of karachi be accepted and there should not bring imported police to Karachi
Unidentified men had allegedly kidnapped Muhammad Salman on February 3.NO ET... He was arrested by police.ET please dont confuse the public
People here talking about loss of economy for 1 day strike, what about the thugs, tola of Nawaz and Zardari for last 25 year's. There is no talk of that lost which not even in Pakistan. Can you guys come out your skin?
Karachi was much more manageable when mohajirs were in absolute majority. Allah please bring back Karachi to its glory it enjoyed once with pashtoons increasing in huge numbers it's becoming another afghanistan
MQM should read 'the writing on the wall'...instead of putting the people of Karachi 'against the wall'. Their days are numbered.
MQM should be shamed of itself for making kids miss school.If you have any proof go to courts just like you should have gone to courts against BBC. "you can fool some of the people for some of the time but you cant fool all of the people all time'
People who call for strikes to be unlawful or inconvenience to others should try to remember the sacrifices mohajirs have made for this country and Karachi. Karachi is great because of contribution of all communities but Mohajirs have contributed the most. So others especially Sindhis should respect it. Pakistan Zindabad.
Forceful Day of mourning, literally! Ask shopkeepers, transporters, bankers, above all labors on daily wages, they NEVER want MQM or any party to shutdown Karachi for a day like this. This mourning has been happening (definitely forcefully) without taking economic loss into consideration since ages. God knows when we will get rid of Drama-Queen MQM. Thank God Quaid-e-Tehreek isnt a president of Pakistan, otherwise we'd might see shutdown in entire Pakistan.
can some one make a rule/law that no strike on working days in Khi otherwise pay billions in damages for loss?
Thank you your Highness MQM RC to allow us to open OUR businesses in OUR city on the permission of the supreme leader sitting in the comforts of his London mansion.
Who is saying business closed by voluntarily, people come in Jalsa voluntarily. One who is saying is a big LAIR. MQM has never changed their attitude, whatever it does by force, either in election, JALSA, Batha kori or close business, sorry to say it is terrorist/mafia. which will never succeed. They should have learnt how ISLAM prosper, and still prospering, with LOVE, Patience.
Day of mourning or day of whoever-opens-his-business-will-get-shot?
Does E.T. have the guts to calculate and publish a story about the economic loss incurred to the economy due to MQM's demanded shutdown? Didn't think so, because you know your place. You only criticize PTI because it doesn't send you a bullet in the letter, some journalism this is.
And,... I'm sorry,. . I didn't quite hear the condemnations of the shutdown, or is that only reserved for when a few truck drivers lose their jobs over shut NATO supply lines? I didn't expect fluent english writing critics to have the backbone to advise, let alone condemn MQM (much like how this comment will be censored). The livelihood lost, economic impact of all shutdowns called by MQM over the past decade must have been equivalent to Pakistan's GDP several times over. How about we ask MQM to stop asking for shutdown? politely, for our own sake.
LAST DITCH EFFORT!