Karachi
Unidentified armed men attacked a unit office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Thursday, killing a Muttahida activist and injuring several others.
After the incident, violence broke out in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan towns, Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Shah Faisal and other areas where armed men resorted to aerial firing and forced shops to close down.
Protesters torched a bus near Jauhar Chowrangi and killed its driver, an unidentified 28-year-old man. A mini-bus of route W-18 was also torched in Taimuria while an Edhi ambulance (EA-3691) was snatched near Jauhar More. Its driver, Nadeem, was injured. Besides, a rickshaw driver was killed near Shareefabad Pathak.
Miscreants also set ablaze several furniture shops near Kamran Chowrangi. They torched two carpet shops and a hardware shop in the area between Jauhar More and Jauhar Chowrangi.
The deceased MQM activist was identified as Rizwan Shah, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
According to the police, MQM’s unit office in Block 18 at Gulistan-e-Jauhar was attacked where party activists and an MPA were present. Five MQM activists sustained injuries while the MPA, who could not be identified till our going to the press, escaped unhurt.
The injured were immediately shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed and Jinnah hospitals. Rizwan Shah, the MQM activist, died during his treatment at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
Sources said that after the attack, activists and leaders of the MQM converged on the hospitals where their party men were being treated and demanded of the authorities to arrest the attackers.
Reports of aerial firing in the whole locality of Gulistan-i-Jauhar were coming in till late night.
According to the fire office, their tenders were stopped near Jauhar Chowrangi for security purposes but they soon got police protection under which they moved on.
Police sources said that violence had also spread to the Pehlwan Goth, the University Road and the Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, where armed men made forceful closure of shops and resorted to aerial firing.
The DIG East, Ameer Sheikh, confirmed to The News that the attack at the MQM unit claimed the life of an activist whereas a bus driver was killed in the subsequent violence in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
The DIG said that he had dispatched several battalions to Gulistan-i-Jauhar immediately to control the situation there.
Meanwhile, people in several marriage halls at Jauhar Chowrangi and Jauhar Bridge were stranded there after the incident as, according to some eyewitnesses, armed men had taken charge of the area till the time police arrived and moved them to safer places from where they proceeded towards their houses.
The eyewitnesses added that due to the tense situation in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and a blockade of Jauhar Chowrangi and Jauhar More, a long queue of vehicles had piled up. The situation in the area was tense till our going to the press.