Pakistan: 11 killed in gun battles over ousted chief justice
Gun battles and attacks killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens today as Pakistan’s political crisis descended into violence between rival parties over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of the chief justice.
In the worst reported clash, pro-government and opposition activists traded assault rifle fire about half a mile from Karachi’s international airport. As volleys rang out, Kamran Ali, a newspaper vendor, said three unidentified people travelling in a car were killed by the firing, and a woman passer-by was wounded.
In another part of the city, private TV network Aaj said its building had been fired on by supporters of a pro-government party, the Mutahida Qami Movement (MQM), who wanted them to stop airing live footage of the unrest in the city.
Arshad Zubairi, the network’s chief executive, said cameramen and journalists on the roof of the building had to take cover and windows were shattered but no one was hurt. Aaj remained on air uninterrupted.
“We are under attack,” senior Talat Hussain said on air as he sheltered behind a wall. “We have seen no security force. No one has come to help us.”
Karachi police officials said at least 11 people had died in violence across the city, and over 70 were wounded. A senior government official reported that 10 to 12 people had died.
The fighting broke out as Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry arrived for the latest in a series of rallies by lawyers and opposition parties protesting against his March 9 suspension by Musharraf.
Critics accuse Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, of trying to sideline the independent-minded judge to head off legal challenges to Musharraf’s plan to seek a new five-year presidential term later this year. The government maintains the move was not politically motivated and that Chaudhry had abused his office.
Two months of anti-Musharraf rallies organised across the country by opposition parties and lawyers have been gathering momentum, and today pro-government parties were responding with their own shows of strength.
Musharraf was due to address a huge gathering in Islamabad to galvanise his support base, but the Karachi bloodshed will only deepen the sense of crisis in the country.
Opposition activists accused MQM activists of attacking them, including in front of the airport.
An Associated Press reporter could see MQM supporters calling for ammunition and firing from buildings, reportedly at supporters of the Pakistan’s People’s Party and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Opposition supporters were firing back. A senior MQM leader, Farooq Sattar, said four of its supporters died in the clash. It was not clear if they included the three people killed in the car.
Roadblocks, including trucks with deflated tyres apparently placed by the MQM, prevented most of Chaudhry’s supporters from reaching the airport to greet him. But a few dozen lawyers who reached there on foot chanted, “We are with you! Down with Musharraf!”
The judge declined an offer from authorities to travel to the venue of a planned downtown rally by helicopter and so was stranded at the airport – as were hundreds of passengers from earlier flights.
It appeared unlikely authorities would be able to clear the roadblocks.
“The chief justice will only go to the city by road,” said Aitzaz Ahsan, an attorney for Chaudhry.
Wasim Akhtar, an MQM official with the provincial government, urged the chief justice to go back to Islamabad to avoid any further violence. His party, partner in a coalition ruling Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, had planned a counter-rally to rival Chaudhry’s.
Authorities in Karachi said they deployed 15,000 security forces but they failed to keep order in the turbulent city of 15 million.
Violence broke out before dawn, when unidentified gunmen killed two activists from the opposition party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a street. The Pakistan People’s Party, the Sunni Tehrik religious party – both long-running rivals of the MQM in Karachi – and the religious Jamaat-e-Islami party all reported casualties.
Witnesses said that shipping containers, trucks and oil tankers, many with deflated tyres, had been parked on key roads in Karachi overnight, including those leading to the airport – apparently to obstruct Chaudhry’s supporters from getting there to welcome the judge. Airport officials said at least three domestic flights were cancelled.
One of the truck drivers, Mohammed Ali, said drivers had been asked to park the trucks by the MQM.
Babar Ghauri, a senior MQM leader, claimed none of their supporters was involved in the shooting incidents. “Our innocent people have been killed,” he said.
