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| Karachi continues to simmer, Oppn calls for strike | | |
Karachi 13 May,
KARACHI: Three more people were killed in fresh bloodletting in the tense Pakistani city where shoot at sight orders were issued against rioters after Saturday's fierce clashes that left 39 people dead as a united Opposition called a countrywide strike on Monday.
Accusing the Government of preventing suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry from addressing a lawyers' convention on Saturday, his attorneys also called for a nationwide boycott of courts on Monday.
Announcing a country wide strike on Monday, Opposition parties, including the Pakistan People's Party and Muttahida- Majlis-e Amal, observed a 'Black Day' alleging that the riots, coinciding with the rallies called by supporters of President Pervez Musharraf and Chaudhry, were carried out at the behest of Musharraf regime which wanted an excuse to impose a state of emergency and put off polls.
Claiming that the violence showed that the government was involved in "state terrorism", PPP chief and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto called on the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court to take suo-moto notice of the violence and "the absence of police to control it".
However, pro-government Muthahida Quaumi Movement trained its guns on Chaudhry, blaming him for the bloodbath and observed it as a day of mourning.
Amid criticism of government's failure to stem violence in Karachi, Musharraf said the clashes were the fallout of "politicising" of the issue of the suspension by Chaudhry.
Addressing a mammoth public rally in front of Parliament in Islamabad on Saturday night, Musharraf said he held the judiciary in high esteem and would accept the verdict of the apex court on the suspension of Chaudhry.
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