Clashes over Pakistan's ousted chief justice leave 27 dead
ZARAR KHAN
Associated Press
May 12, 2007 at 11:19 AM EDT
KARACHI, Pakistan — Government supporters and opponents turned entire neighbourhoods of Pakistan's largest city into battlegrounds Saturday, leaving at least 27 people dead in the worst political violence since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended the chief justice.
Even before political rallies had begun, street battles throughout the sprawling city killed and injured scores, as gunmen traded assault rifle fire in a residential area of bungalows and concrete apartment blocks just a kilometre from Karachi's international airport. A private TV network came under fire, but stayed on air as rioters torched vehicles outside.
The fighting broke out as Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry arrived for what organizers hoped would be the largest in two months of rallies by lawyers and opposition parties protesting his ouster. Pro-government parties were responding with their own shows of strength.
Hospital officials and a senior security official told The Associated Press that 27 people had died in the violence and more than 100 were injured.
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Pakistani paramedics rush an injured man into a hospital in Karachi, May 12, 2007, as clashes erupted between government and opposition parties supporters. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images)
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The judge refused an offer from authorities to travel to the planned downtown rally by helicopter and was stranded at the airport — as were hundreds of passengers from earlier flights — by the makeshift roadblocks surrounding it, as well as at least one gunfight a half-mile away.
“The chief justice will only go to the city by road,” said Aitzaz Ahsan, an attorney for Justice Chaudhry.
Witnesses said that shipping containers, trucks and oil tankers, many with deflated tires, had been parked on key roads in Karachi overnight — apparently to obstruct Justice Chaudhry's supporters from welcoming the judge at the airport.
A few dozen lawyers walked to the airport anyway to greet Justice Chaudhry, chanting, “We are with you! Down with Musharraf!”
General Musharraf on Saturday ruled out declaring a state of emergency in response to the turmoil sparked by his March 9 suspension of Justice Chaudhry. In comments reported by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, the military leader urged the nation to stand united and remain peaceful.
Karachi police chief Azhar Faruqi said 19 people died and 65 were wounded in the violence.
Opposition activists accused a pro-government party, the Mutahida Qami Movement (MQM), of attacking them with batons and gunfire as they attempted to greet the judge at Karachi airport. An AP reporter saw MQM supporters calling for ammunition and firing from buildings; opposition supporters fired back.
Wasim Akhtar, an MQM official with the provincial government, urged the chief justice to go back to Islamabad to avoid further violence.
General Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and is still army chief, was due to address a huge gathering in the capital Islamabad later Saturday that organizers expected would draw over 300,000 ruling party supporters.
Speaking earlier in the day, General Musharraf made no explicit mention of the Karachi violence, but ruled out declaring a state of emergency — which some analysts have suggested would let him cling onto power if his efforts to seek a new presidential term flounder.
“There is absolutely no requirement and absolutely no environment for taking such drastic measure,” General Musharraf was quoted as saying.
In a speech made by phone to a rally of thousands of his supporters in a Karachi square, MQM leader Altaf Hussain — who lives in exile in London — indirectly blamed Chaudhry for the violence, saying he should have heeded warnings from provincial officials to stay away.
Mr. Hussain urged the crowd to “control your emotions and demonstrate peace, as we are peace-loving people.”
But the government's failure to contain the unrest in Karachi, despite the presence of 15,000 security forces in the city of 15 million, will deepen the political turmoil gripping Pakistan.
Baton-wielding MQM supporters were accused of attacking about 200 lawyers as they marched to Sindh High Court, where Justice Chaudhry was due to make an address. Naeem Quereshi, a spokesman for the Karachi Bar Association, said dozens of lawyers were injured in attacks by MQM activists across the city.
Earlier, Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, had offered assurances that no one would be allowed to “disrupt peace” in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub — although opposition parties accused the government of condoning the unrest.
“The government is providing all facilities to the MQM for its rally, and we are being harassed, attacked and humiliated,” said Marajul Huda, Karachi chief of Jamaat-e-Islami.
In the 1990s, scores of MQM activists were arrested for allegedly kidnapping dozens of their rivals and attacking security forces. Party activists are still heavily armed, but critics say they enjoy impunity as part of General Musharraf's government.
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