Pakistani police ransack ethnic party's protest camp
KARACHI, July 28 (AFP) - Scores of police on Wednesday ransacked a camp set up in protest at alleged persecution of an ethnic group here, arresting two politicians and several workers, witnesses said.
The police crackdown on the camp -- set up by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Monday -- also broke up a hunger-strike by movement supporters protesting alleged discrimination against the Mohajir settler community.
All those detained were released after two hours, party workers said.
The MQM, which represents Urdu-speaking settlers who arrived here after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, accuses police of killing more than a dozen of its workers in recent months.
An MQM leader Farooq Sattar condemend the removal of the camp.
"Nobody can stop us from staging a peaceful protest which will continue," Sattar told AFP. He said the party would formulate its future strategy.
"It is shameful that government is trying to suppress the voice of dissent. It is a vindictive act," he said.
Earlier the MQM said it would hold demonstrations and rallies after the 15-day hunger strike programme.
MQM has accused the government of denying political and social rights to Mohajirs and committing excesses against their supporters.
Officials said the MQM's campaign was designed to "defame" Pakistan, adding that security had been beefed up in several neighburhoods to prevent violence.
The MQM is electorally the second largest party in the troubled Sindh province, after former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party.
MQM is at loggerheads with the government since October when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sacked the provincial coalition government and imposed direct federal rule in southern Sindh province to curb terrorism.
Since then 1,500 people have been arrested, most in Sindh's capital of Karachi, in a crackdown against "criminals and terrorists."
More than 50 people, majority of them political activists, have been sentenced to death by special anti-terrorism courts.
Officials said the government was determined to eliminate "terrorism" from Karachi and provide speedy justice to people.
Police also Wednesday dispersed a camp made up of relatives of police officer and security personnel killed in the violence, who had been protesting the MQM camp.
More than 4,000 people have died in political, ethnic and sectarian violence in Karachi during the last four years.
BREAKING NEWS --- HUNGER STRIKE CAMP OF
MQM UPROOTED AND HUNGER STRIKERS TORTURED AND UNLAWFULLY DETAINED
MQM Global Hunger Strike in London
The MQM Hunger Strikers
protesting against the genocide of the Mohajir Nation in Karachi,
Sindh province, Southern Pakistan, opposite White House, Washington DC, Toranto, Montrial. The genocide is being committed by the Nawaz Sharif
Government.
MQM STARTS INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE IN
KARACHI, PAKISTAN
Karachi protest at 'police brutality'
FOURTH DAY OF MQM's GLOBAL PROTEST
AGAINST ATROCITIES UPON MOHAJIR NATION IN PAKISTAN
MQM to launch hunger strike from today
THIRD DAY OF MQM's GLOBAL PROTEST
AGAINST ATROCITIES UPON MOHAJIR NATION IN PAKISTAN
Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi MNA and
Deputy Convenor of MQM Co-ordination Commitee and other MQM
workers observe the hunger strike in front of White House in
Washington DC, USA
SECOND DAY OF MQM'S GLOBAL PROTEST
AGAINST ATROCITIES UPON MOHAJIRS IN PAKSITAN
MQM LAUNCHES A GLOBAL PROTEST AGAINST
GENOCIDE OF MOHAJIRS
HANDBILLS DISTRIBUTED AT 10 DOWNING
STREET
MQM workers observe hunger strike in
London
MQM TO HOLD WORLD WIDE PROTESTS
INCLUDING HUNGER STRIKES