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Karachi Violence

Troops ordered to shoot on sight

Death toll rises to 85

Agencies
Pakistani police and paramilitary troops were ordered yesterday to shoot on sight in its largest city Karachi as up to 85 people were killed in a surge in ethnic and political violence over four days.
Gunfire reverberated in several neighbourhoods and thousands of people were stranded, short of food and too frightened to go out after three consecutive nights of violence in what is Pakistan's biggest city and economic hub.
"Of the 80-85 people martyred,
most of them are innocent people," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters. "Very few are politically affiliated people."
He added 89 people had been arrested since last night for involvementin violence.
Malik called for "targeted action" against the killers, but said there would be no large-scale operation in the city of 16 million.
"We know which forces are behind these killings. We have satellite records of the areas where terrorists are killing innocent people," said Malik, comparing those responsible
to Taliban insurgents in the northwest.
"These militants are no lesser evil than the Taliban. They are killing people to destablise the democratic system".
The killings have been blamed on loyalists of former coalition partners the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP), which represent different ethnic communities and straddle volatile political fault-lines.
"We have issued orders to the security forces to shoot anyone
involved in violence on the spot," Sharjeel Memon, the provincial information minister, told Reuters.
"In addition to the police and Rangers, another 1,000 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary will be deployed in the city to control the violence," he said, referring to another paramilitaryforce.
"Thirty-seven people were killed yesterday alone," Memon said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani appealed for peace, calling for the country to unite against the city's violence.
The US ambassador to Pakistan also voiced concern about escalating instability in the city whose Arabian Sea port is used by the United States to ship supplies to the 150,000 foreign troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Karachi, home to more than 18 million people, has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence.
A recent report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 1,138 people were killed in Karachi in the first six months of 2011, of whom 490 were victims of political, ethnic and sectarianviolence.
The latest surge in violence in the southern city came days after the MQM announced it was quitting the ruling coalition.