Nine Killed In Wave Of Violence In Karachi

By RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal

October 30, 2013
At least nine people have been killed in separate acts of violence in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, in the last 24 hours.

Karachi police said one of those killed was a local political activist, Qamar Shah, who was an active member of the nationalist Awami National Party (ANP). Police say he was gunned down in the Mehmood Abad area of the city.

Malik Achakzai, the information secretary of the ANP for Sindh Province, said that armed men on motorcycles opened fire on Shah, killing him on the spot.

An operation against illegal armed groups has been under way in Karachi over the past two months. Police officials say they have arrested hundreds of criminals and militants.

Meantime, four people were killed and more than 10 others injured in a bomb blast in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan.

The bomb was planted on a bicycle parked in a car lot in the provincial capital, Quetta. Several vehicles were damaged in the blast.

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Balochistan is home to separatists fighting for independence and a greater share of profits from the region's oil, gas, and mineral resources. It has also seen sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shi'a.