KARACHI: Unidentified gunmen have shot dead at least 17 people in a new wave of violence in Pakistan's commercial hub Karachi, police said Saturday. “At least 17 people have died in the past three days by firing by unknown gunmen in several parts of Karachi,” city police chief Fayyaz Leghari told Reuters. A local television journalist was among the dead. Karachi has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. But hundreds of targeted killings last year have raised concerns that violence could escalate and create a new crisis for the US-backed government in Islamabad. Analysts and security officials blame much of the violence on the rivalry between the two main parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and the Awami National Party, both part of the ruling coalition in Islamabad. Moreover, the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) submitted adjournment motions in the National Assembly and the Senate regarding the killings. Saying that the government had failed to protect its citizens, the PML-Q suggested that a military operation was needed to restore peace in Karachi. Bad blood between the MQM, which represnts the interests of majority Urdu-speaking mohajirs, and the ANP, linked to the growing Pashtun minority, goes back years. Retaliatory killings of party members is partly fueled by ethnic tension. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) says it is not involved in Karachi killings. The Awami National Party (ANP) asserts it is not behind recurring massacres in Pakistan's financial hub. And the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) maintains it has nothing to do with frequent butcheries. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) have traded charges over the massive killings in Karachi. The MQM accused the ANP of igniting ethnicity and patronising criminals like drug peddlers and extortionist groups who desired to destroy the peaceful environment of Karachi. MQM Deputy Parliamentary Leader Faisal Sabzwari said there was a deep rooted conspiracy to create a law and order situation in Karachi in order to bring the wheel of industrial and commercial activities to a halt and harm Pakistan's economy. “On the one hand, ANP leader Bashir Jan and his colleagues are injured in an attack, and on the other journalist Wali Khan Babar is martyred,” he said. ANP Sindh President Shahi Syed also demanded a military operation in Karachi. He said said the citizens of Karachi were left at the mercy of terrorists. He strongly condemned the ongoing killings of innocent people and demanded an immediate military operation to curb terrorism. Besides trying to contain violence in Karachi, the government faces a Taliban insurgency and the task of rebuilding areas devastated by August floods which inflicted $9.7 billion in damage and will strain the weak economy for years to come. Stock market investors keep a wary eye on tensions in Karachi, home to Pakistan's main port, stock exchange and central bank and the main gateway for Western military supplies bound for neighboring landlocked Afghanistan.
