Karachi curfew extended

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 6

Karachi curfew extended

NZPA-Reuter Karachi The curfew on riot-hit parts of Karachi has been extended as the death toll from ethnic violence topped 170. Police sources said the curfew, clamped on 17 districts of Pakistan’s most populous city, was extended to take in Korangi district after police and hospital sources reported another 10 riot deaths yesterday.

The violence between Pashtuns from the country’s north-west frontier and Afghanistan, and Mohajirs, immigrants from British India at its partition in 1947, brought harsh criticism from the Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, who called on the Government to resign. Newspapers reported that Karachi faced shortages of everything from petrol to basic foodstuffs.

The curfew has badly hit public transport and normally busy streets are

largely deserted, giving an eerie air to the city of seven million people. Police sources said 10 people died yesterday, including three who died of wounds from earlier clashes.

Troops arrested some 200 Pashtuns when they tried to burn down gov-ernment-owned grain warehouses. Another 15 people were arrested and the police fired teargas to disperse a crowd of about 100 attacking a Government printing press. Troops armed with submachine guns patrolled the city yesterday but the curfew was lifted for three hours to allow hardpressed residents to buy basic foodstuffs.

The same temporary suspension was planned for today. The rioting began last Monday when Pashtuns armed with automatic weapons attacked Mohajirs in Karachi’s Orangi Town suburb and killed at least 100 people.