Ubaidullah Yusufzai’s killing sparks riots in Karachi

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KARACHI -- The targeted killing of Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh leader Ubaidullah Yusufzai has unleashed a new outbreak of violence in Karachi, leading to 12 slayings in the last 24 hours, police said August 20.

Yusufzai was shot to death near the airport by unknown armed motorcyclists August 19, leading to another wave of target killings and torching of vehicles and buildings throughout the city, police said. Nine targeted killings took place August 19 and another three by the afternoon of August 20, Police Surgeon Hamid Parhiar told media.

On August 20, incidents of aerial firing and torching of vehicles were reported in Shah Faysal Colony, Sohrab Goth, Banarus, Malir, Liyari, Hyderi Chowk and elsewhere, police reported.

The ANP did not blame any party for its leader's slaying but demanded a judicial enquiry and punishment of the culprits.

It also announced a three-day mourning period starting August 20.

On August 20, except Clifton and Defence areas, all the main markets of Karachi remained closed for fear of more unrest linked to Yusufzai’s assassination.

Attendance in offices and educational institutions was sparse for the same reason.

More than 90 suspects bearing weapons and possibly involved in the violence have been arrested, a Ranger spokesman said. They are being interrogated, he added.

Troubled areas are being patrolled, the Ranger spokesman said, contending that the intensity of violence declined August 20 as a consequence of patrols and arrests.

The police and Rangers have been directed not to spare the criminals involved in the targeted killings and riots, a spokesman for the chief minister Sindh said.

The law-and-order situation will improve within a couple of days, he said. More than 600 targeted killings have occurred in Karachi since January.

The government gave Rangers shoot-on-sight orders a few weeks ago, but the strategy did nothing to reduce targeted killings in Karachi, ANP President Sindh Shahi Syed told Central Asia Online August 20.

If police fail to capture Yusufzai's killers, the ANP will order strikes and demonstrations in Karachi, he said.