October 07, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 24, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 6: Violence broke out in parts of the city early Saturday morning when protestors pelted stones, blocked some major roads and exchanged fire with law-enforcement agencies as polling for the presidential elections took place in the Sindh Assembly.

Hundreds of protestors, most of them carrying sticks, emerged in Nazimabad early in the morning and hurled stones at the traffic. They blocked the road leading from Nazimabad to the SITE area and traffic remained suspended for over five hours. Heavy black smoke enveloped the area as protestors burnt tyres on the main road.

During the five-hour hide and seek game between protesters and police, shots were fired from both sides and security personnel also fired a couple of teargas shells to disperse the crowd throwing stones at police vans. The areas most affected by the clashes were Aurangabad, Jehangirabad, Nazimabad No 2 and Petrol Pump.

The local leadership of the Awami National Party (ANP) claimed that one of their activists was injured by police firing. However, the police denied the allegations.

“We have reports that a protestor was injured in the Rizvia police area during the crossfire,” said Liaquatabad Town SP Fayyaz Qureshi. “We have reason to believe that he was injured by party activists’ firing. No leader of the party has yet approached the police with a complaint.”

Workers arrested

Mr Qureshi told Dawn that the police had arrested over half a dozen protestors, almost all of whom belonged to the ANP. He added that though a case had not been yet registered, the activists would be booked under Sections 147 and 148 of the Pakistan Penal Code, related to rioting.

Meanwhile, hundreds of men came out on the main road near Dawood Chowrangi in the Landhi area and traffic was briefly suspended. Later, the local leadership of the ANP and other opposition parties held talks with area police and the protests were subsequently wrapped up peacefully.

“Most of the protestors belonged to the transport business and we told them that if they did not want to bring their vehicles out, they would not be forced to do so,” said Landhi SP Asif Ejaz. “But we made it clear that we would not allow anyone to defy the law.” He said the police did not need to take any action to disperse the protestors. The whole episode took almost an hour and traffic flow was restored by 8am.

Meanwhile, the city police followed a comprehensive plan designed to maintain law and order on Saturday. Senior officials said that the Sindh Assembly building, adjacent areas and the City Court were the focus of the plan that involved over 1,000 policemen.

“We considered all aspects while planning the security arrangements, including a strike call by some political parties, a protest call by lawyers and most importantly, the polling at the Sindh Assembly building,” said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Azhar Ali Farooqi.

He said that the city remained peaceful except for a few isolated incidents of violence, which did not cause any serious losses. The police chief added that a comprehensive security plan had been discussed with senior officers a day before the presidential elections and some of them had been tasked with execution through available force. However, he did not elaborate upon the plan.

According to sources in the police department, three senior officers commanded the security plan designed to maintain law and order in the areas near the Sindh Assembly building. Closed-circuit television cameras were affixed to monitor movement and a large number of armoured personnel carriers and ambulances were put on alert.

On Saturday evening, the Sindh government withdrew its Oct 4 order regarding the imposition of a ban throughout the province under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure from Oct 6 to 9 with immediate effect, adds APP.