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Pakistani forces begin search operation in Karachi

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Aug 24, IRNA -- Pakistani paramilitary forces and police launched a search operation in the country’s commercial hub of Karachi early Wednesday, where violence has claimed nearly 100 lives only in ten days.

Officials said that ‘surgical operation’ against target killers, kidnappers, and gang wars was started as there has been no let up in violence in Karachi which started after the last week killing of a former lawmaker in a bomb blast.

The government had been under fire for its failure to quell violence in Karachi. Police and hospital sources say that 300 people were also killed in the city in July.

A strike called by the powerful group of Urdu-speaking people, Mutahida Qaumi Movement or MQM against the violence disrupted life in Karachi and other urban parts of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital on Tuesday.

MQM says that its supporters and Urdu-speaking people have been targeted by criminal gangs. Other ethnic communities also say that their members were targeted.

Traders and other strong ethnic Pashto-speaking group Awami National Party group demand army operation to curb violence but the government has rejected the demand.

President Asif Ali Zardari presided over a high level meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday and decided that army would not be deployed in the city and the paramilitary force and police would perform security duties.

Police said that a large numbers of paramilitary Rangers were deployed in Lyari, Orangi Town, Malir, Gulshin-e-Iqbal, Ahsan Abad, Saddar and some other parts of the city, which had seen incidents of firing during the fresh wave of violence.

Police and Rangers arrested over a dozen people during the search operation and were taken for questioning.

TV footage showed armed paramilitary soldiers searching houses and apartments and taking away arrested people blind-fold and their hands tied.

In Lyari area, residents took to the streets and staged demonstration against the search operation. They burnt tyrs and chanted slogans against the operation.

The paramilitary forces were stopped from searching houses, local TV channels reported. Aerial firing was also reported in the area.

The security forces cordoned off and traffic was blocked in areas where they conducted search operation.

Meanwhile, seven people were injured in a firing incident that took place in Lyari area early Wednesday. They were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik also visited the areas of Lyari and Kati Pahari, two troubled areas and met the residents. He told the media representatives that the operation would be conducted in all the areas where terrorists were present.

**1394
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30533218