|
Protesters Torch Vehicles Ahead Of Slain Leader's Burial in Pakistan
KARACHI, May 19 (Islamonline & News Agencies)-Angry mobs torched several vehicles Saturday despite tight security ahead of the funeral of a slain Sunni Muslim party leader and five others in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, news agencies said.
Saleem Qadri, president of the Sunni Tehreek (Sunni Movement), was killed on Friday in an ambush outside his home in the city's western district of Baldia, Western news agencies reported.
Police said unidentified gunmen intercepted his car and sprayed it with bullets as Qadri, along with party members and relatives, was heading to a mosque for Friday prayers.
Qadri and two of his nephews died on the spot, while his cousin and an unidentified man died later in hospital, police said.
A police officer who was assigned to guard Qadri was also killed while the party leader's two sons were in a serious condition with bullet wounds.
City police chief Tariq Jameel said Saturday police suspected the unidentified dead man could be one of the assailants. His political affiliation or connections had not been established, Jamil said.
Police said around 50 people had been rounded up as investigations continued into the murders, which triggered angry protests in the city.
Shops and markets remained closed and traffic was thin in the western part of Karachi, which houses several industrial units and middle and lower middle-class homes, residents said.
Youths took to the streets and set ablaze at least five vehicles in different areas ahead of Qadri's burial, scheduled for late Saturday, police said.
"We have deployed many police and paramilitary troops in the city as a preventive measure," Jamil said. "We have taken adequate security measures for the funeral."
Sunni Tehreek, founded by Qadri in the early 1990s, represents followers of the majority Barelvi school of Pakistan's dominant Sunni community.
Qadri survived a similar assassination attempt in the eastern city of Lahore in 1996.
Shiites form about 20 percent of Sunni-dominated Pakistan's 140 million people. Hundreds of people have died, mostly in Punjab, in recent years in violence blamed on religious extremists from the two sects.
|
