NAWABSHAH, May 12: Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists and a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporter were killed in intermittent armed clashes that began soon after the start of the polling on Saturday and continued till Sunday evening in the city. The clashes also left about a dozen people wounded.

Local MQM leadership reacted strongly to alleged ‘rigging at various polling stations’ in the NA-213 and PS-24 constituencies by PPP activists a few hours after the polling began on Saturday. Tension grew high when activists and supporters of the two parties physically resisted each other’s movement outside some polling stations. The strife provoked an exchange of firing at the Gup School polling station in Taj Colony in which an MQM activist, Irfan Malik, lost his life and seven other persons, including Nawabshah PPP general secretary Imdad Dhamrah, Abdul Latif, Ali Gul, Ashiq, Arbab and Naveed were wounded.

In a similar armed clash at the Govt Municipal High School, three persons, identified as Nadeem, Ghulam Murtaza and Ms Shamim, were wounded.

Charged activists of the two parties continued to exchange hot words and also resorted to firing into the air intermittently till late in the night.

On Sunday morning, groups of the rival parties also resorted to challenging each other in different parts of the city.

In one such engagement inside a court, a former MQM councillor, Ghulam Rasool, sustained fatal wounds. The clash left five other people, Nazeer, Azeem, Salman, Kalu and Mohammed Yaseen, wounded. The victims were taken to the Peoples Medical College Hospital.

A PPP supporter, identified as Deedar Khaskheli, was lost his life in another armed clash that took place in Gharibabad locality of the city. Babar Mugheri, said to be a PPP-Shaheed Bhutto group worker, was wounded in an incident of firing on Sakrand road.

Tension and fear gripped the city ever since the Saturday clash. Roads, streets and lanes wore a deserted look due to sporadic firing and armed political activists were seen roaming in almost all areas of the city. While activists.

Police and other law-enforcement agency were remarkably absent from troubled areas where armed men put up barricades to block thoroughfares and spread panic and fear by firing into the air throughout the day.

While no PPP leader or activist appeared ready to comment on the situation, the MQM zonal leadership strongly condemned PPP candidates for NA NA-213 and PS-24 and their supporters of indulging in rigging and attacking MQM workers.

MQM candidate for NA-213 Inayat Ali Rind and PS-24 candidate Asim Kabeer Khanzada called a press conference at the party’s zonal office on Sunday evening and held local PPP leadership responsible for the alleged rigging, clashes and bloodshed.

Mr Khanzada told journalists that the police personnel deployed at the polling stations in Nawabshah were siding with the PPP candidates. He also claimed that PPP workers took away ballot boxes from a number of polling stations in city.

He demanded action against those who gunned down two MQM workers and wounded several others in attacks on Saturday and Sunday.

The MQM candidates also demanded re-election in both the constituencies under the supervision of the army.

Shaheed Benazirabad Deputy Commissioner Agha Nasir told Dawn that in view of the clashes and tension in Nawabshah, he had approached the home department with a request to provide assistance of army troops in order to restore peace in the city.

He hoped that army troops would join the Rangers and police soon to restore law and order.