Karachi stays open for business despite MQM strike call

Rangers arrest eight people belonging to the MQM for forcibly shutting down shops

KARACHI: Karachi remained open for business on Saturday despite a shutter down call by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over the killing of their workers in an encounter with Rangers.

Business and educational activities continued as per routine, and regular public transport could also be seen on the city’s roads. Rangers personnel were present in sensitive and crowded areas of the metropolis.

According to a Rangers spokesperson, at least eight people belonging to the MQM were arrested for forcibly shutting down shops. Rangers commended the ‘peaceful residents of Karachi for rejecting the strike call’, Express News reported.

Meanwhile, MQM issued a statement accusing the paramilitary force of forcibly opening shops in the city and arresting some of its members to ‘prove that the strike was a failure’.

Four activists of the MQM were killed in an encounter near Northern Bypass on Thursday night, said the Rangers in a statement issued on Friday.

Read: Rangers reject MQM claim of workers’ extrajudicial killing

The Rangers’ spokesperson had claimed that the encounter took place when their troops conducted an operation over the presence of criminals involved in the targeted killing of advocate Syed Ali Hasnain Shah Bukhari, who was gunned down in Korangi on March 4. One of the cases Bukhari had been working on before his death was a missing persons’ case on behalf of the MQM.

Following the deaths, the MQM announced a day of mourning across the country, urging traders to shut their businesses and transporters to remain off the roads.