Pakistan - Karachi violence

Shootout in Karachi after eight die in blast

Article published on the 2010-01-08 Latest update 2010-01-08 15:26 TU

Pakistani security officials stand amid debris after the explosion
(Photo: Reuters)

Five people are reported to have been shot dead in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Earlier eight people died in an explosion in what police say was an Islamist insurgent hideout.

Five people have been killed in shooting in the Karachi slum district of Lyari, according to The News newspaper. It reports that four people were killed on the spot, while another succumbed to injuries in hospital. Two other wounded people are still alive in hospital.

"The situation is tense in the area and firing is continued," the paper's website reports. "All shops and business have been closed."

The violence seems to be linked to conflict between the nationally ruling People's Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a party based on immigrants from India which is strong in the city.

Earlier, eight people died in an accidental explosion in a house which police say was being used as a hideout by armed Islamists.

Hand grenades, a Kalashnikov rifle and suicide vests were found at the scene, according to the police.

“It seems that explosives which were stored in the house caused the explosion in which six people were killed,” Karachi Police Chief Waseem Ahmad said. “It seems that the house was being used by terrorists."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters that the people living in the house were from Swat, the north-western district where the military conducted an anti-Taliban offensive last year.

"It seems that they were preparing some targets, and, if they had succeeded, it would have been very devastating,” says correspondent Ashraf Khan.

“It is said, and police and experts believe, that Karachi was calm
because Karachi was very favourite place for Taliban and other
militants as a hiding place. And it was also a very good source of
raising funds for them, so they were not targeting anyone here.”

The insurgents raised cash through kidnapping and bank robberies, Khan says, as well as from donations from sympathizers.

But the anti-Taliban operation in the north-west may have led them to look for targets elsewhere.

“I think the frustration is increasing more and more among the
militants, and they are looking for more soft targets,” Khan told RFI

A suicide-bombing of a Shia-Muslim killed 43 people in Karachi on 28 December, leading to riots and an official day of mourning which closed the city.

In the Khyber district on the Afghan border five people were killed and 12 wounded on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at  the headquarters of the Ansar ul-Islam Islamist group.

Officials say the bomber was from a rival armed group, Lashkar-e-Islam, which is the main perpetrator of attacks in the district.