Shia mourners, rally participants clash near Karachi Super Highway

The Express Tribune

Shia mourners clashed with participants of the Labaik Ya Rasool Allah rally on Shahrah-e-Pakistan near Super Highway in Karachi on Monday. The rally was entering Karachi from Hyderabad through the highway and reached Ancholi where Shia mourners were carrying the coffin of Mukhtar Ahmed – killed in targeted killing on Sunday – to a graveyard. The groups exchanged fire with each other, leaving three people injured. An angry mob destroyed a camp at Water Pump chowrangi, near Ancholi, set up to welcome the rally participants. Two funeral buses were also set on fire after the incident. Police and Rangers arrived at the spot after the incident to take control. Continual violence in the city has claimed five more lives on Monday, while police have managed to arrest eight suspects and a heavy amount of arms and ammunition. A doctor working at the Lyari hospital, identified as Dr Nisar, was shot dead in Lee Market. Earlier during the day, a firing incident in the Memon Goth area of Malir left two people injured, who later succumbed to their injuries. Unidentified men opened fire on and killed 40-year-old Maulana Muhammad Haroon near Taqwa Mosque in the Sultanabad area of Manghopir. Haroon was the imam of the mosque. Meanwhile, a young man’s body was recovered from the Iqbal Market vicinity of Orangi Town. The hands and feet had been tied and police said the deceased was tortured before being killed. The body could not be identified. In Jamshed Town, police conducted a targeted operation and arrested eight suspects, while a heavy amount of ammunition was recovered from the Patel Para and Baloch Para areas of the city. Violence in the city has taken 10 lives within the last 24 hours and around 100 in the last week. Earlier, Inspector General (IG) Sindh Fayyaz Leghari had reportedly issued show cause notices to Deputy Inspector General(s) of three zones of Karachi due to their failure to maintain peace in their areas.