Calls for army grow as Karachi week toll hits 101

   by Hasan Mansoor   
Pakistani politicians, industrialists and citizens stepped up calls Tuesday for the army to intervene to quell violence destabilising Karachi, where more than 100 have been killed in a week.    "We demand the armed forces take over the city, restore law and order and ensure safety to innocent people's lives," Khalid Tawab, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), told AFP.    "Business activity has been disrupted because of incessant killing. People don't want to go to market because of risks to life," he said.    Ethnic and criminal violence blamed on gangs has killed 101 people in the last week, the latest bout in the worst criminal and ethnic violence to hit Pakistan's largest city and financial capital for 16 years.    "At least nine people were killed since Monday evening, so far 101 people have been killed since Wednesday morning," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.    Security officials said they had found the bodies of victims who had been kidnapped and tortured, stuffed into sacks and thrown on the streets with notes warning of more violence.    A government official working in the health department confirmed the casualties.    The violence has been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the Awami National Party (ANP).    On Tuesday, markets were closed, streets deserted and attendance at offices thin after the MQM called for a "day of mourning" against the killings.    Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday flew to Karachi and asked the provincial government to restore peace as quickly as possible.    Sharjeel Memon, Sindh provincial information minister, said a "surgical operation" was planned to end the violence.    The main ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which was elected in 2008 after nine years of military rule, insists that civilian authorities are capable of controlling the situation.    But members of other political parties are increasingly calling for army intervention, a sensitive issue in a country that has been ruled for more than half its existence by the military.    "We want to see law and order in Karachi improve. Anyone, including the army, who can get results and improve the situation should take control," Wasay Jaleel, a spokesman for MQM, told AFP.    "We demand the army across the board to restore peace here," ANP's provincial chief Shahi Syed told AFP on Tuesday.    People on the streets also expressed dissatisfaction with the ability of the police and the paramilitaries, technically answerable to the interior ministry, to control the situation.    "The armed forces should be deployed in Karachi, because police and paramilitaries have failed to save our lives," said Khalid Ali, 45, a shopkeeper in the main downtown market area that has seen some violence.    "We feel no enthusiasm for the coming Eid (religious festival). Please, soldiers take the city in their hands and return smiles to our children," Noshaba Hameed, 37, a schoolteacher, told AFP by telephone from the east.    Independent analysts said army's deployment would affect Pakistan's war on Taliban in its northwest and aggravate the situation further.    "Army is already engaged in the war on militants in the northwest and its involvement in Karachi will weaken the war," Tauseef Ahmed Khan, a columnist, who teaches mass media in Urdu University, told AFP.    "Only the police could restore law. The government should give a free hand to operate. That could make wonders," he said.

Bomb kills three Pakistani soldiers

by Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI, Dec 9, 2011 (AFP) - Bombers killed three Pakistani soldiers Friday as firefighters battled to control an inferno at a NATO trucking terminal attacked two weeks after Pakistan shut the Afghan border to US supplies.

The roadside bomb exploded alongside a vehicle carrying members of the Rangers paramilitary in Karachi, Pakistan's port city used by the United States to ship the bulk of supplies needed by 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The powerful explosion badly damaged the vehicle and wounded four other soldiers in the eastern part of the city after daybreak, officials told AFP.

"Three troops from Pakistan Rangers were killed and four were hurt. It was a remote control bomb," said Sharfuddin Memon, a spokesman for the home ministry in the southern province of Sindh.

Mohammad Salim, an office worker in a nearby government office, said he saw the troops lying on the ground with the vehicle in flames.

"It was a loud explosion. I was going to the office and I rushed to the spot where the rangers were lying on the ground. They were bleeding," he told AFP.

Karachi is Pakistan's largest city, its financial hub and a lifeline for US and NATO troops fighting the Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan.

But the Afghan border crossings have been closed to NATO for 14 days, the longest period since the US-led invasion ousted the Taliban in late 2001.

Pakistan shut its two border crossings in the north and southwest on November 26 in protest after NATO air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

The government also ordered US personnel to vacate the Shamsi air base in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, widely reported to have been a hub in the covert CIA drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil.

Overnight, gunmen destroyed at least 34 trucks in a gun and rocket attack on a NATO trucking terminal in Baluchistan, where police said the fire brigade was still struggling to extinguish the inferno.

"The oil tankers are still on fire. Firefighters have been unable to control it. It was a huge fire," police official Mohammad Majeed told AFP by telephone from the city of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

"We have no final count on how many tankers were torched but you can say dozens were destroyed," Majeed added. Around 44 oil tankers and goods trucks had been parked at the temporary terminal, one of three set up in and around Quetta for stranded vehicles.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have in the past carried out similar strikes to disrupt supplies.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped through Karachi, although US troops have increasingly sought alternative routes through Central Asia owing to violence in Pakistan.

It remains unclear when Pakistan's current blockade will end. The crisis has been described as the worst to hit the fragile Pakistani-US alliance which had not recovered from a secret American raid that killed Osama bin Laden near the capital on May 2.

Initial findings of a US military investigation into the November 26 strikes are not expected until December 23. US President Barack Obama has expressed condolences to President Asif Ali Zardari for the deaths, saying it was not a "deliberate attack."

More than 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked networks since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

Karachi has also seen its worst ethnic- and politically-linked unrest in 16 years, with more than 100 people killed in one week alone in October.

The gang wars have been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the rival Awami National Party (ANP).