DATE=5/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PAKISTAN/KILLING (L-O)
NUMBER=2-262517
BYLINE=AYAZ GUL
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Unidentified gunmen in Pakistan have
assassinated a prominent Sunni-Muslim scholar and his
driver. As Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad, more than
20-people have been killed in religiously motivated
attacks in recent weeks across the country.
TEXT: Police say 70-year old religious leader Maulana
Yousuf Ludhianvi and his driver were killed when
unknown gunmen ambushed their car in the center of
Pakistan's southern city of Karachi.
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in
Karachi to protest the murders. Witnesses say the
protesters have blocked streets near the famous Binori
Town mosque, where the slain leader used to teach.
Witnesses say the demonstrators burned cars and forced
shopping centers to close.
No one has taken responsibility for the assassination,
which is the latest in a series of religiously
motivated killings involving rival Sunni and Shiite
Muslims. Militant groups from both sides routinely
clash with each other.
Ongoing sectarian violence has claimed hundreds of
lives in recent years in the country. The minority
Shiite community constitutes only 15-percent of the
predominantly Sunni population in Pakistan. The
Sunni-based militant groups accuse neighboring Iran of
fueling sectarian violence by supporting extremist
Shiite organizations in Pakistan. Iran denies the
charge.
Pakistan's military government, led by General Pervez
Musharraf, has threatened to ban religious groups
found to be involved in sectarian killings, but no
action has been taken so far. (SIGNED)
NEB/AG/RAE
18-May-2000 09:22 AM EDT (18-May-2000 1322 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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