A general strike was observed in Karachi and other major Pakistani cities yesterday to protest violence that left 41 people dead amid growing discontent over President General Pervez Musharraf's ouster of the chief justice.
In Islamabad, a Supreme Court began hearing a raft of petitions challenging Chaudhry's suspension, but proceedings were adjourned after one of the 14 judges declined to hear the case. Proceedings were due to resume today with the remaining 13 judges.
Shops were shut and traffic was thin on the roads in Karachi, where security forces have authority to shoot rioters on sight, after the weekend witnessed the worst political violence in Pakistan in years.
Security forces on Saturday took no action as rival groups demonstrating over an abortive visit to Karachi by suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry fought fierce clashes that also wounded more than 150 and caused widespread damage to property. Opposition parties blamed the government for the violence and called a nationwide protest strike yesterday.
"There is a complete strike in Karachi," said Azhar Faruqi, the city police chief.
He reported that law and order was improving -- after the unrest took an ominous ethnic turn on Sunday with clashes between Urdu-speaking Mohajirs linked to a pro-government party and Pashtuns, whose rivalry has caused bloodshed here in the past.
Officials said the strike was being observed in towns and cities across southern Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital.
The strike was also observed, in varying degrees, in Islamabad and the capitals of Pakistan's other three provinces, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
Many citizens appeared to support the strike call; others observed it out of fear of recrimination or unrest during pro-Chaudhry street demonstrations.
In Lahore, about 8,000 people, including lawyers, opposition party and human rights activists, chanted "Go Musharraf Go!" and "Death to Altaf Hussain."
Hussain is leader of the pro-government Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party blamed for much of the Karachi violence.
They burned two effigies of Musharraf and hundreds of protesters pushed through a police barricade.
The weekend's bloodshed marked a serious escalation in a crisis that began on March 9 when Musharraf suspended Chaudhry, and has hardened opposition to plans for the general to extend his nearly eight-year rule.
Newspaper editorials yesterday were scathing of the military leader.
The Daily Times accused Musharraf of sanctioning "brutal action to stop the chief justice in his tracks, leaving more than 40 dead."
"What message is given to ordinary Pakistanis, the outside world and those behind the violence when the state chooses to abdicate from its duty to provide security in as blatant a manner as seen over the weekend?" the News daily said.
The pro-government MQM, accused by the opposition of stirring the violence, has blamed Chaudhry for ignoring advice that he should not come to Karachi as it could lead to bloodshed.
The government has said it is too early to say who was to blame for causing the unrest.
Karachi Police Chief Faruqi defended security forces' low-profile on Saturday, saying opening fire on rioters would have made things worse.
"There would have been a lot of collateral damage," he said.
Sindh Home Secretary Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem said Sunday that 3,000 extra paramilitary rangers had been called in.
He said that security forces were authorized to shoot to counter any "major breakdown of law and order."
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS