Tension in Karachi; Army may be called in

Tensions continue to mount on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in Pakistan's commercial capital, even as the Sindh government is contemplating calling the Army to control the recent spate of ethnic and political clashes that has left 25 dead in last few days.

Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza told the media after a meeting on the law and order situation in the city said that the government had taken strong notice of the spate of target killings and violence in Karachi.

 "If the situation demands we can also call out the army to assist the administration in controlling the situation," he said.

Tension prevailed here with violence and aerial firing reported from some areas where armed men forced shopkeepers to close down and burnt vehicles.

Since the trouble started late Friday night around 25 people most of them workers of different political parties have been killed in target killings and violence.

Mirza said the government was also considering imposing section 144 in other parts of the city after it was enforced in the worst hit area of Orangi yesterday.

The Dawn newspaper expressed apprehensions that the recent spate of violence and killings had raised spectre of ethnic violence erupting on a big scale again in the city as it prevailed in the 80s and 90s.

Most of the killings were ethnic based and as a result of fighting between the Pashtun dominated, Awami National Party and the Urdu-speaking Mutthaida Qaumi movement.