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Monday, August 8, 2011

Pakistan's Military Expresses Concern About Karachi Violence

KARACHI - Pakistan's military voiced concern for the first time on Monday over ethnic and political violence in the country's financial capital that has killed 800 people so far this year.

The military, which has ruled the country for more than half its existence -- mostly recently from 1999 until the restoration of civilian rule in 2008 -- spoke out after generals met at army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi.
"The forum expressed concern over the law and order situation in Karachi and its ramifications or implications on the national economy," the military said in a statement after army chief General Ashfaq Kayani met his top generals.
Parts of the Arabian Sea port city have become battlegrounds with authorities struggling to stem the violence, blamed on activists from political parties representing competing ethnic groups, from spiralling.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says 800 people, most of them poor, have died since January, including 300 last month alone.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Karachi that the government had taken steps to clear out stockpiles of illegal weapons by cancelling all firearm licences at the end of the month, forcing owners to reapply.
"At present some licence holders have illegally acquired hundreds of weapons on a single licence, which will end next month," said Malik.
"From September anyone caught with a weapon with the old licences will be dealt with seriously. Such people could be tried in anti-terrorism courts and get sentences of seven to 14 years," he added.
Malik said the government's action would bring "a permanent peace" to Karachi, which has a population of 18 million and accounts for about one fifth of the country's entire gross domestic product.
Previous government promises to confiscated stockpiles of unlicensed weapons in Karachi have come to nothing.
A tentative calm has held since the government last week deployed hundreds of extra security forces in troubled neighbourhoods.
The military said government measures should "help redress the situation".
Much of the violence has been blamed on tensions between supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), rooted in the Urdu-speaking majority, and the Awami National Party (ANP), which represents ethnic Pashtun migrants.
The human rights commission says the violence in Karachi is the deadliest since 1995, when more than 900 killings were reported in the first half of the year. AFP