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Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, was facing a political crisis last night after violence claimed the lives of at least 40 people when pro-government militants opened fire on an opposition rally at the weekend.
Running gun-battles erupted on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, on Saturday when armed activists from the city's ruling party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalition ally of Gen Musharraf, blocked an anti-government rally.
Pro-government and opposition groups blamed each other yesterday for the worst political violence in Pakistan for years as at least three more people were killed and riots and looting spread.
Troop reinforcements were despatched to Karachi and the provincial governor ordered paramilitary forces to shoot any "miscreants" on sight.
It was the bloodiest episode in a two-month-long challenge by lawyers and opposition parties to an attempt by the military ruler to sack Pakistan's chief justice.
The MQM, on the orders of its leader Altaf Hussain, staged a "counter rally" to coincide with a visit to Karachi by the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has defied the president's demands for his resignation.
As several opposition rallies got under way, armed activists from the MQM opened fire on protesters.
Dead bodies were left where they fell for hours in Karachi's humid streets.
In the city's Jinnah Hospital yesterday, Adil Bashir, 23, was recovering from three bullet wounds after narrowly escaping a street execution.
He said he had not taken part in the rally but was rounded up by armed, teenage MQM activists along with four others. He alleged that he and others were lined up against a wall before being sprayed with automatic gunfire. He and one other survived.
Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples' Party, said: "We condemn this mayhem and we believe that the MQM could not have done it without the active support of General Pervez Musharraf."
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch accused the Pakistan government of "fomenting the violence".
The actions of the MQM may have been not so much a sign of support for the eight-year rule Gen Musharraf, but a demonstration of its own power in what could be the first round of a new turf war in Karachi.
Gen Musharraf's options are becoming more and more limited as he struggles to have himself re-elected and to continue as army chief.
His bargaining position for striking a possible power-sharing deal with the PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, appears to be growing weaker. |