(3 Aug 1995) Urdu/Eng/Nat
Gunmen apparently avenging the death of Pakistan's most-wanted criminal went on a bloody rampage in Karachi Thursday.
Farooq Dada was killed by police yesterday. In retaliation at least 16 people have died in Thursday's violence - including 12 victims who were tied up, mutilated and shot in the head.
In an apparent revenge attack for the shooting of M-Q-M activist Farooq Dada on Wednesday, gunmen went on the rampage in Karachi.
Bodies of 12 victims were found shortly before dawn piled one on top of another in a bus abandoned in a back lane.
They had been tied up, blindfolded, mutilated then shot in the head.
There was no particular reason for their deaths - they were apparently picked for execution at random.
Relatives collected at the morgue to identify the bodies and lay out their dead.
While no one has claimed responsibility for the grisly murders, police are blaming the largest faction of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement.
M-Q-M is a militant ethnic group, which demands equality for Mohajirs - Indian Muslims who settled in Pakistan after partition with India in 1947.
In two months, at least 600 people have been killed in Karachi in the Mohajir's increasingly violent struggle and the government's concerted crackdown on suspected M-Q-M strongholds.
At a hastily convened press conference following the latest blood bath, Interior Minister Nasrullah Babaar, attributed the killings to the M-Q-M.
SOUNDBITE: (English and Urdu)
"They (the M-Q-M) are trying to make an ethnic problem for us. They have killed people from many ethnic backgrounds. They have killed 17 people in all today in retaliation for yesterday's killing of Dada."
SUPER CAPTION: Nasrullah Babaar, Interior Minister
The twelve bodies found in the bus were not the only assassinations of the day.
An 85-year-old man, his son and two daughters were shot dead when gunmen burst into his home. Police believe he was a target because he was suspected of collaborating with police.
Elsewhere in the city, another five people were killed, including a magistrate and his bodyguard.
Dada was implicated in at least 100 killings, as well as scores of kidnappings and extortion attempts. When police searched his vehicle after the gun battle they found a cache of weapons including assault rifles and a rocket.
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