7 killed in Pakistan riots
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - April 9, 2008 A building near Karachi's courts was set ablaze, and five
charred bodies were found inside, said police officer Syed
Sulaiman. Two people died of gunshot wounds, including a paramedic
whose ambulance came under fire while trying to help the injured.
The trouble began when a group of attorneys protested in
downtown Karachi against an assault on a former Cabinet member
aligned with President Pervez Musharraf. The protesters say they
came under attack by lawyers aligned with the new coalition
government, which has vowed to curb Musharraf's powers.
It was not immediately clear how the trouble spread or who was
responsible for the arson and shooting, which occurred mainly in a
stronghold of the pro-Musharraf Mutahida Quami Movement party.
The turmoil was testing the stability of Pakistan's new
government, which took office after routing Musharraf's allies in
February parliamentary elections. The coalition is considering how
to cut the U.S.-allied president's authority and cement Pakistan's
return to democracy after eight years of military rule.
It was also the second episode to tarnish a powerful lawyers'
movement that led months of protests against Musharraf, galvanizing
his opponents and contributing to the defeat of his allies in the
elections.
On Tuesday, protesters - included black-suited attorneys -
besieged former Cabinet minister Sher Afgan Niazi, hitting him and
beating him with shoes as he emerged from his office. Police
hurried him into an ambulance, which was stoned and had its
ignition key stolen, forcing security forces to push it away from
the scene.
Attorneys allied with the Mutahida Quami Movement were
protesting the assault on Niazi when the violence erupted in
Karachi.
"Our lawyers were staging a peaceful demonstration when the
so-called lawyers of the Karachi Bar Association attacked our
lawyers," said party leader Hyder Rizvi.
At least eight people were injured in the initial brawl, said
police officer Tahir Naveed. A 7-year-old child was being treated
for a bullet wound to the head, said Farhan Jokhio, a doctor at a
city hospital.
Dozens of cars and buses were torched. Later, paramilitary
forces in helmets and body armor and security officers with
automatic weapons patrolled the streets. Vendors shuttered their
shops, and there was little traffic.
Karachi, a city of some 15 million people, has a history of
violence among rival political parties, armed criminal gangs and
Islamist groups.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent anti-Musharraf lawyer and president of
the Supreme Court Bar Association, tried in vain to disperse the
crowd that assaulted Niazi. Ahsan announced later that he was
resigning as association president in protest.
His resignation coincides with growing speculation in Pakistan's
media about differences in the new coalition government on how to
restore the judges purged by Musharraf and whether a split will
help the president cling to power.
Since Musharraf's opponents won the February elections, Ahsan
has warned of more street protests unless they keep a promise to
restore the judges.
Both Musharraf and the head of the new government, Prime
Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, have condemned the recent
violence and appealed for political stability.
The attack on the Cabinet minister came a day after another
close Musharraf associate was beaten with a shoe and heckled in the
provincial legislature.
The two biggest parties in the coalition have sought to blame
Pakistan's feared intelligence agencies for stoking trouble on
Musharraf's behalf.
Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
blamed the mushrooming unrest on the "Machiavellian shenanigans of
dictatorship."
Musharraf allies have seized on the trouble to denounce the
lawyers' movement and accuse the new administration of persecuting
and humiliating its opponents.
"This is because of the president because they think that I am
his companion and I think he is the nation's asset," Niazi told
Express News TV.
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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad and Sadaqat Jan contributed
to this report.