Skip to main content

Pakistan city halts to bury 45 bomb dead



Traffic was thin as Karachi's educational institutions, businesses and markets closed on Monday after the local government announced a day of mourning.

Pakistan's largest city has shut down to mourn 45 people killed by a car bomb in a Shi'ite Muslim neighbourhood, the latest in a series of devastating pre-election attacks.

Traffic was thin as Karachi's educational institutions, businesses and markets closed on Monday after the local government announced a day of mourning and Shi'ite groups three days of mourning for those killed in the blast.

The bomb exploded as Sunday worshippers were leaving mosques in Abbas Town, ripping through two apartment blocks and trapping people beneath piles of rubble.

Those who survived but whose homes were damaged or destroyed are being housed temporarily in schools, officials said.

Local transport and traders' associations said they would not be working on Monday.

"There will be no public transport on the roads today," said Karachi Transporters Association chief Irshad Bokhari.

Head of the Karachi Traders' Alliance, Attique Mir also said shopping centres and malls as well as business activity would remain suspended.

Karachi is vital to Pakistan's economy, contributing 42 per cent of GDP, 70 per cent of income tax revenue and 62 per cent of sales tax revenue.

But the city is plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence that last year killed more than 2200 people and which routinely forces closures, damaging businesses.

On Monday, the stock market was open, but Mohammad Sohail of brokerage firm Topline Securities said there were fewer dealers and trading volumes were low.

Officials said 45 people, including women and children, were killed and around 150 others wounded in the attack.

Although Abbas Town is a mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood, officials said some Sunni Muslims were also among the dead.

Police are preparing a list of those killed and are trying to identify the dead with the help of their relatives.

Pakistan's parliament is due to dissolve in two weeks in preparation for elections but rising violence against Shi'ites, who make up around 20 per cent of the 180 million population, has raised serious questions about security.

"The unfortunate reality is that things could take a turn for the worse as tensions increase ahead of the approaching general elections," newspaper The News wrote in an editorial on Monday.

"The risk of violence, especially in Karachi, is very real. With election preparations in full swing, the processions, meetings and rallies that accompany our electoral campaigns have the potential to lead to chaos," it added.

Last year was the deadliest year on record for Shi'ites in Pakistan with more than 400 killed, according to Human Rights Watch.

A bomb at a shrine visited by Shi'ites in Shikarpur district, some 400 kilometres northeast of Karachi, killed two people last Monday.

A day later the Supreme Court ordered the authorities to come up with a strategy to protect Shi'ites after bomb attacks on Shi'ite Hazaras in the southwest on January 10 and February 16 killed nearly 200 people.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, sp...
1 comment
Read more