Overnight violence in Pakistan's Sindh province left at least 35 people dead and 80 others injured in incidents of rioting, firing and arson, following the killing of a legislator of the ruling Muthaida Qaumi Movement
More than two dozen vehicles, shops, teashops and carts parked on roadsides were set ablaze by rampaging mobs.
Police officials and hospital sources said that since the gunning down of member of the Sindh assembly Raza Haider, 35 people have been killed in incidents of violence in different parts of Karachi and Hyderabad.
This port city was rattled with gunfire, forcing the closure of business centres, shops, petrol pumps and marriage lawns, bringing life to almost a virtual standstill.
Hamid Parihar, police surgeon of the Sindh province said, 31 bodies with gunshot wounds have been received in different hospitals in both the cities. However, the Dawn newspaper said that 35 bodies were received by hospitals.
"We have received around 13 dead bodies and are treating 45 injured people most of them from gunshot wounds," the medico legal officer of the state-owned Jinnah hospital said.
Dr Abbas Rizvi at the Abbasi Shaheed hospital said nine dead bodies were brought to the hospital and dozens were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Abbas Rizvi at the Abbasi Shaheed hospital said nine dead bodies were brought to the hospital and dozens were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries.
{{/usCountry}}"It is a precarious situation and there is trouble in many parts of the city and we have increased the number of policemen and the para-military Rangers patrolling the city," city police chief Waseem Ahmed said.
35-year-old Raza Haider, one of the oldest members of the MQM and a member of the Sindh assembly, was shot dead along with his bodyguard, Khalid Khan when they came to a mosque in Nazimabad to attend the funeral prayers of his friend's mother.
"Four persons riding a motorcycle and in a white car came to the mosque and as Raza Haider was performing ablution they fired at him from close range, it was a clearly a target killing," a senior police official said.