Strike in Sindh: MQM observes day of mourning in Karachi

MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi says chief minister of Sindh was responsible for killing the party’s worker

KARACHI:

Shutters were down across Karachi 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.

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. The main arteries of the city, including Shahrae Faisal, Rashid Minhas Road, Sher Shah Suri Road, MA Jinnah Road and II Chundrigar Road were completely empty.

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.

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


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