Food stores open briefly during lull in rioting
December 30, 2007
Sonya Fatah
The Toronto Star
KARACHI, Pakistan–Vigilante groups kept watch over Karachi’s troubled neighbourhoods yesterday, one day after rioting left the normally bustling southern port city in a state of paralysis.
Bands of young men culled from the ranks of the Pakistan People’s Party kept a 24-hour vigil in select areas as paramilitary Pakistan Rangers, deployed on the city’s streets under shoot-to-kill orders, appeared on the scene.
Slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s fortress-like home named Bilawal House, after her eldest child, which was brimming with activity and the centre of the party’s election campaign until Thursday evening, was shrouded in darkness.
Ismail Gabol and Shehzad Baloch, both 18, joined about 30 other youth members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the city’s Lower Gizri neighbourhood in keeping peace in an area where passions were quickly ignited by news of Bhutto’s assassination.
“We’ve been here since last night,” said Gabol. “We’re working with the Rangers here to avoid any unnecessary shootings and prevent looting.”
For the first time in two days, provision stores were granted curfew-style operating hours so the city’s residents could stock up on food and other necessities.
Friday’s widespread looting and rioting substantially decreased across Karachi yesterday as communities collected in area mosques to offer funeral prayers for Bhutto.
Still, some areas remained tense.
Three people were killed and more than 20 others injured in Lyari district, a PPP stronghold, and an area that is still recovering from the aftermath of the Oct. 18 attacks on Bhutto’s homecoming parade. More than 40 of those who died were from the Lyari area.
Scores of young men armed with weapons prevented traffic from penetrating the area’s inner streets.
“We don’t want to give PPP a bad name,” said Nasir Khan, 35, a party worker flagging down stray cars with his right hand and wielding a weapon in his left. “We’re making sure there is no trouble. There has been a lot of unnecessary looting so we are maintaining the peace.”
Incidents of vandalism were also recorded yesterday in Karachi’s port and northern districts.
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