May 14, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1428

PESHAWAR, May 13: Eleven workers of the Awami National Party were killed and 17 injured in Saturday’s violence in Karachi while 10 workers were missing, said a party press release.

According to the press release issued by the Bacha Khan Markaz here on Sunday, Sindh

ANP general secretary Mohammad Amin Khattak identified the killed workers as Aminullah, vice-president of Qasim Town UC-1V; Javid, Shah Maqsood, Haider Khan of Sherpao Town UC-3; Boland Iqbal, Iqbal Hussain and Fazl Rehman of Muzaffarabad Town UC-1; Muntazir Khan, Umar Saddique of Muslimabad UC-1; Syed Ahmad Shah of Metero; Mehtab Ali

of Ittehad Town, Liaqat and

Saif Rehman.

Meanwhile, ANP’s provincial president Afrasiab Khattak condemned the death of ANP workers and other innocent people at the hands of “MQM gangsters” in Karachi and termed it a national tragedy.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he appealed to all Pakhtuns to join hands against this barbarism and brutality on part of the armed “gangsters of the MQM” and asked them to participate in Monday’s protest demonstrations. He demanded a judicial inquiry into the bloodshed in Karachi and exemplary punishment to the culprits.

He said the only sin of the ANP workers was they were struggling for the independence of judiciary. He said professional killers had opened indiscriminate fire on peaceful participants of the rally in front of law-enforcement agencies’ personnel. He alleged that the barbarism of the MQM showed that the Sindh province was ruled by a killer.

Mr Khattak said the Pakhtuns living in Karachi and other parts of Sindh were not alone and they were backed by the Pakhtuns of the NWFP, Balochistan and Fata. He said if federal and Sindh governments failed to protect the lives and properties of the Pakhtuns, they knew well how to protect themselves. He said the ANP would observe Monday as a black day against the Karachi incident.