At Least 10 Die in Pakistani Political Violence

At least 10 people were killed Saturday in battles between security forces and gunmen during a protest strike in the Pakistani port city of Karachi and nearby Hyderabad, police said.

They said nine people, including three police officers and a 12-year-old boy, were killed in Karachi, the country’s commercial hub and capital of the southern province of Sindh.

Karachi came to a halt at the start of the strike called by the Mohajir Quami Movement, or MQM, an estranged coalition partner of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government and the main political party in Karachi.

One police official was killed in a drive-by shooting in Hyderabad, another MQM stronghold that also was shut down by the strike.

The MQM announced the strike Thursday to protest the killing of nine of its activists in an attack Wednesday that it blamed on government intelligence agencies and security forces. The government denies the charge.

The MQM withdrew from the federal government Friday to protest the violence that has engulfed Karachi for years.

Security officials said several police and paramilitary ranger checkpoints came under attack in various parts of the city Saturday. One police officer was killed and four rangers were wounded.

One police officer and a police informer were found shot dead in the central district’s Gulbahar area, and another police officer from an intelligence unit was fatally shot in the Liaquatabad area of the district, police said.

Police fatally shot three youths who were were placing burning tires on the streets to block traffic, police said. One unidentified man was shot dead and another wounded in the Liaquatabad area.

Twelve-year-old Mohammad Tahir was killed, apparently by a stray bullet, in central Nazimabad.