Violence flares in Karachi

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 8

Violence flares in Karachi

NZPA-Reuter Karachi A man was stabbed to death and eight people were injured in a new outbreak of ethnic violence in Karachi, where 186 people died in communal rioting last month. The police said yesterday that troops were rushed to Liaquatabad, a volatile suburb of Pakistan’s biggest city, after the incident, and the police used, teargas to. disperse angry crowds. A group of young men from the Mohajir immi-. grant community dragged a bus driver out of his vehicle and stabbed him, before setting the vehicle on fire, the police said.

Doctors said the man was dead on arrival at hospital, and a further eight people were treated for injuries from stabbings or stonings.

The disturbances spread to three other suburbs of the city and a tax, a car, three rickshaw cabs and two mini-buses were set alight.

Witnesses said *troops patrolled the riot-hit areas yesterday but no new curfew was imposed. • The Governor of Sind province resigned yesterday in the wake of last month’s riots. Government officials said Jehandad Khan, a former army general from the Punjab province, had relinquished charge of his’ office and left for the national capital, Islamabad. ’ :

Opposition politicians had demanded the resignation of Mr Jehandad Khan and the provincial Chief Minister, Ghous Ali Shah, after the riots between, Pashtuns from the North' West Frontier Province and Mohajir immigrants from India.

Mr Shah continues in office, but he has to form a new Cabinet after its resignation on Thursday. The provincial government was heavily criticised for failing to prevent the riots, which had been widely predicted.