February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

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GILGIT, Feb 24: At least five persons including district SP Faizan Safdar were injured on Monday when a procession taken out here to protest against the Karachi killings was pelted with stones, eyewitnesses said.

Seven of the nine victims killed in Malir on Saturday belonged to Nagar tehsil of Gilgit district.

Sources said one of the injured, Ishaque, son of Muhammad Ali, was in critical condition.

The eyewitnesses said that some unknown persons had hurled stones at the procession when it reached near Jama Masjid of Ahle Sunnat. Protesters in retaliation also threw stones at the mosque, they added.

Some sources said five persons were injured when the procession came under fire at the Kashroote area while heading towards Airport Road.

Following the firing, the eyewitnesses said, all the business and transport activities in the city came to a halt. Some unknown miscreants damaged window panes of six vehicles at Raja Bazaar and burnt tyres in protest.

Later, the procession turned into a protest rally and Shiat leaders of the Northern Areas, Shiekh Bilal and Agha Ziauddin Rizvi, spoke to the protesters.

They claimed that agencies knew who were behind this gruesome murder of the nine innocent persons. These heinous crimes, they said, were being committed with impunity because the culprits of previous murder cases were still at large.

FUNERAL: Bodies of five of the seven Gilgit residents were brought here on Monday morning by a C-130. Their funeral rites were performed here at Imamia Mosque in the presence of Northern Areas Acting Chief Secretary Saeed Ahmed Khan, Education Adviser Saifur Rahman Khan, Shiekh Ghulam Haider Najfi and other officials.

People of Nagar also blocked the portion of Karakoram Highway between Hunza and Gilgit for six hours in protest against the killings.

A copter of the army aviation had dropped the five corpses at the Harespodas in Nagar from where they were taken for burial to their ancestral graveyards in Sikanderabad, Sumayar and Nagar Khas at around 2pm.