Targeted Karachi Killings Lead to Calls to Disarm City, Central Asia Online, 28 July 2010
EXCERPT: "Disarming Karachi is essential to control the city’s skyrocketing rate of assassinations, analysts say. Worried about increases in targeted killings, political observers are demanding that the government de-weaponise the city and divert funds into economic policies, such as reducing poverty and increasing job opportunities, to curb the violence. The government has formed a committee to look into implementation of a de-weaponisation programme, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said, adding the government has ordered a judicial enquiry into the increase in targeted killings from January 2010 until the present. About 42 people were killed July 21-26. Some of the dead were affiliated with the Awami National Party (ANP), the Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Punjabi Pashtun Ittehad (PPI); most were not political activists. The MQM and ANP have blamed each other for the recent violence, but Federal Home Minister Rehman Malik rejected accusations of either party’s involvement and instead denounced the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). 'People from different castes, creeds and backgrounds live in the city in harmony, but terrorists want to spark violence on an ethnic basis in order to achieve their dirty motives,' Malik said. [...] 'In the first six months of this year, 889 people have been murdered, of which some 260 were targeted in the city,' Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) data indicate. "
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Related articles:
SHC demands comment on target killings, The Express Tribune, 30 July 2010
Sindh govt establishes tribunal to investigate Karachi killings, DAWN, 27 July 2010
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