Pakistan’s commercial capital, Karachi, continues to bleed as 30 more people from various ethnicities, including one dozen in a single incident, were killed on Tuesday, taking the death toll of the target killings to 73 after four consecutive days of violence.
The foremost incident occurred in the Shershah Kabaari Market, where at least 24 armed men were reported to have entered the market and gunned down traders and shopkeepers there, the Daily Times reported.
Witnesses revealed that armed men, wearing camouflage caps commonly worn by Lyari gangsters, entered the market on motorcycles and started indiscriminate firing, and then fled the scene.
They claimed that the assailants had come from the Lyari riverbed and went back without any difficulty, and although Rangers and police personnel had been deployed in the locality, they too disappeared from the scene instead of taking action. The witness also alleged that the culprits took at least seven traders with them.
Later, more incidents of target killings were reported in the Preedy police precincts, Gulistan-e-Johar, Sharah-e-Noor Jahan, the Nazimabad police precincts, Pak Colony, Abdul Hassan Isphani Road and the Gulberg police precincts.
Before the Kabaari Market incident, five people, including four Baloch-speaking and an activist of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi were also killed in the city.
In the wake of the ongoing violence in Karachi, Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza has indicated that a curfew might be imposed after 24 hours, followed by a search operation, if the current situation persisted in the city.