Factional clashes in Pakistan's Karachi kill at least 17 people

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Source: Reuters

Factional clashes in Pakistan's Karachi kill at least 17 people


Faisal Aziz
KARACHI
Thu May 20, 2010 6:48am EDT

(Reuters) - Rival ethnic-based political factions have clashed in the Pakistani commercial hub of Karachi and at least 17 people have been killed, reviving worries of the return of the violence that plagued the city in the 1990s.

The city of about 18 million people is Pakistan's main industrial base and home to its main port, stock exchange and central bank. It is also the main gateway for Western military supplies bound for neighboring land-locked Afghanistan.

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The cause of the latest round of violence was not clear but it involved activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the dominant party in the city, and the rival, ethnic Pashtun-based Awami National Party (ANP).

"Over the past 24 hours, at least 17 people have been killed in targeted attacks as well as in exchanges of fire between rival groups," Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64J11I20100520

[ChangoLoa]

1. MQM vs. ANP, an old tradition in Karachi. nt

[cosmicone]

2. Liberate Sindhudesh from Pakistan and give the Sindhis

a right of self determination. It will improve the lives of those people.