day mourning Karachi on alert KARACHI - Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi went on alert Friday as gangs torched vehicles and a shop after Dr. Imran Farooq from the local ruling party was stabbed to death in London. Gas stations, schools and markets in Karachi were closed and no public transport was running as news of the stabbing of Dr. Farooq spread. Farooq was a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), one of Pakistan's major parties and the largest in the coalition governing Karachi. The MQM is also an important member of the federal government in Islamabad. The slaying could have implications for national political stability, especially if the MQM accuses its rivals of being involved. Streets in Karachi were largely empty as MQM declared 10 days of mourning and scrapped birthday celebrations for its leader, Altaf Hussain, who is also based in Britain. On Friday, an MQM leader said the party thought Farooq, 50, was killed in response to controversial statements made by the leader of party. London's Metropolitan Police said no arrests had been made and did not speculate on the motive. In a statement, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the killing. On Friday morning, more than a dozen people broke into a plastics shop and set it on fire near the MQM headquarters, witnesses said. Elsewhere in the city, youths blocked the main road and torched two buses. Local media reports also said some vehicles were burned and shots fired late Thursday. The MQM's leader Altaf Hussain lives in London after leaving in 1992 amid an army operation against the party, which the generals had accused of criminal activities. According to the MQM's website, Farooq left Pakistan the same year. Neither man returned to Pakistan since. Farooq and Hussain created the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organization (APMSO) in 1978. Farooq was its secretary general and remained so after the student wing was converted into MQM, a fully-fledged party, six years later. He was twice elected MP but went into hiding in 1992, when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi. He was wanted over scores of charges, including murder and torture. Farooq always maintained that the charges were politically motivated and he re-emerged in London in 1999, when he claimed asylum in Britain. Although he was officially number two in MQM and was popular within the party, his role was relatively low-key. Hussain regularly addresses large gatherings in Karachi via telephone link. In recent weeks, he appeared to suggest that the country's army should rise up against the civilian government, angering his party's federal coalition partners. MQM leader Salim Shahzad told Dunya TV that the party saw Farooq's killing as a reaction to Hussain's statements.
