Karachi curfew eased

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 11

Karachi curfew eased

NZPA-Reuter Karachi Pakistani authorities lifted a curfew on most of Karachi for two hours yesterday as the police reported two more people killed in ethnic rioting, bringing the death toll after three days of violence to at least 164. Hundreds of thousands of people came out of their homes to buy food and essential goods and stare at the wreckage of burned houses and vehicles, before being ordered back indoors.

The city of more than seven million people was tense but quiet yesterday. However, the police said two men were burned to death in the suburb of Jetlines the night before when arsonists set more than 50 huts on fire.

Doctors at one hospital reported four injured people admitted yesterday, three with stab wounds and one shot through the neck. At least 164 people have been killed and hundreds injured since ethnic rioting between

file rival Pashtun and Mohajir communities exploded on Sunday, according to hospital doctors.

Several thousand troops, backed by naval units and the police, enforced the curfew yesterday with orders to shoot violators on

sight. Public transport was scarce and activity in the business sector almost non-existent. The relaxations followed a relatively calm day on Wednesday in which only seven new

deaths were reported, apart from the two at Jetlines. Five curfewbreakers were shot dead by troops and two people

killed in a minor clash, doctors said. The official news agency, A.P.P., said 437 people had been arrested in the three days of

bloodshed. Karachi, Pakistan’s main industrial, commercial and financial centre, has lost millions of dollars in lost work hours and trade, apart from the, destruction of hundreds of properties.