Day of mourning: MQM keeps shutters down in Karachi

Residents stuck at home as businesses remained closed

KARACHI:

Streets of the provincial capital were empty on Thursday morning after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced a day of mourning across the province for its unit in-charge, Sohail Ahmed, who was found dead in Mawach Goth on Wednesday.

After Ahmed’s funeral, the MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi spoke to the media and said that the chief minister of Sindh was responsible for killing the party’s worker. He added that if Ahmed had a criminal record, then it should be shared.

“Sohail Ahmed was not a terrorist,” said Rizvi. “He was an innocent man. Was he only targeted because he was an MQM unit in-charge?” He added that Ahmed had been detained by the police for more than 40 days before they killed him and left the body in Mawach Goth.

The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Qadir Patel held a press conference on Thursday and denied that the party had threatened the deceased. He refuted allegations made by the MQM about the PPP killing MQM workers.

According to Patel every address made by MQM Chief Altaf Hussain was full of threats. “The MQM has no proof that PPP’s Saeed Chawla had threatened Ahmed,” said Patel. “Chawla would never even hurt a bird.” He added that workers of other parties had also been killed recently and if you asked them they would say it was ‘namaloom afraad’ from a political party, and everyone knows who they were talking about.

Shutters down

Most of Karachi’s residents were stuck at home as there was no public transport. Several schools, colleges, banks, stores, cafes and other businesses also remained closed. Some offices of the Sindh government, however, were conducting business as usual.

There was barely any activity in the usually busy areas of Saddar and Gulshan. There was movement in some areas of Lyari, Dalmia and Safoora Chowk.

A heavy contingent of law enforcers were seen patrolling different areas in the city. Police and Rangers were also conducting snap checks to maintain law and order in the city. The main arteries of the city, including Sharae Faisal, Rashid Minhas Road, Sher Shah Suri Road, MA Jinnah Road and II Chundrigar Road were completely empty.

Several taxi, bus and rickshaw drivers were asking for double the fare to get commuters from one place to another.

Abdul Basit, who was on his way home after completing his night shift, said he was extremely displeased with the MQM’s shutter down strike. “These things have a negative effect on the people who have to earn a living,” he said while talking to The Express Tribune.

According to the police spokesperson, some people burnt tyres and pelted several cars with stones.

“Unidentified men tried to set a truck on fire in Korangi,” he said. “Law enforcers got there in time and managed to control the situation.” He added that besides this, there was no violence reported in the city and the police was on high-alert.

After 5pm, business activities resumed in the city after Altaf Hussain issued a statement asking shopkeepers to pull up their shutters.

Hyderabad

A shutter down strike was observed on Thursday in some parts of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Jamshoro, Sanghar and Tando Allahyar districts. Several commercial markets, educational institutions and private offices remained closed. Protesters burnt tyres and threw stones at people and vehicles to block the roads in some areas.

Sukkur

There was a partial strike in Sukkur while the rest of upper Sindh carried on with business as usual.

After the MQM announced that they would hold a strike and day of mourning for their deceased party worker there was some panic and aerial firing in a few of Sukkur’s neighbourhoods. In Sukkur, MQM workers had asked some shops not to open their doors till the afternoon. In Larkana, some MQM workers hoisted a black flag outside their offices in the Lahori Muhallah and staged a protest. No strike was observed in Pannu Aqil, Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo, Jacobabad, Thul, Shikarpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Khairpur, Naushero Feroze, Larkana, Kambar-Shahdadkot and Dadu.

With additional reporting from Hyderabad and Sukkur.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.