Karachi: Launching “surgical” raids to check violence in Karachi, Pakistani security forces have arrested 90 suspects from different parts of the city, where an all-party meet has been called by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Friday to discuss the law and order situation. A spokesman for the Sindh government said on Thursday that the conference would be held at Shah’s house and all provincial heads of different parties have been invited to attend the meet.
“The Sindh CM and Cabinet decided on having the conference as we want to take all parties who are in the government or in opposition into confidence while dealing with the situation in Karachi,” spokesman Waqar Mehdi said.
It is not clear how many parties would accept the invitation to attend the meet as the two main groups — the Mutthaida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party — have more or less stayed away from recent government deliberations on the law and order situation.
The Jamaat-e-Islaami also announced that it would hold a big peace rally on Friday and appealed to citizens to participate in large numbers in it to register their concern over the recent killings. In what is being described as the worst ethnic and criminal unrest in Pakistan’s biggest city and commercial hub in the last 16 years, more than 100 people have been killed in the violence, prompting the government to order the crackdown. Since the crackdown was launched on Wednesday, there had been no reported cases of violence or target killings in the city. A lawyer was gunned down in the posh Defence area this morning but the police linked it to old enmity. (PTI)
