Two persons were shot dead in Karachi on Saturday raising fears of violence in the city during major rallies by Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry and the Muttahida Quami Movement, a coalition partner in President Pervez Musharraf's government.
City police chief Azhar Farooqi confirmed that one person belonging to the Muslim League Nawaz group was killed in Malir and another in Shah Faisal colony late Friday night.
"The police has been told to remain on high alert and we are trying to locate the killers of these two people," Farooqi said.
While one person was killed when he was putting up banners in favour of the Chief Justice, another was a shopkeeper who refused to pull down his shutters on the instructions of some unidentified people, police sources said.
This largest Pakistani city remains tense and deserted as most of the major road arteries were blocked by trucks and wagons whose tyres had been deflated.
Since late Friday night police had closed down the main Shahrah-e-Faisal road badly disrupting the traffic flow and affecting passengers intending to travel to the airport and those arriving on domestic and international flights.
DIG Traffic Falak Khursheed said Shahrah-e-Faisal had to be blocked as the MQM had started taking out rallies since late night.
DIG Traffic Falak Khursheed said Shahrah-e-Faisal had to be blocked as the MQM had started taking out rallies since late night.