KARACHI, May 12: Despite tall claims by the Sindh government and the police about heavy deployment to maintain law and order on the day of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s arrival in the city, the police and rangers disappeared from trouble spots, giving a free hand to rival groups to exchange fire and kill each other.

Police said that scores of people were killed in the violent incidents, and many others were wounded while several vehicles were set on fire. Witnesses said that over 35 vehicles were set ablaze at various spots in the city.

Advisor to the Sindh Chief Minister on Home Affair Wasim Akhtar on Friday had claimed that 8,000 personnel of the police and an equal number of rangers’ personnel would be deployed to maintain peace and tranquillity in the city. However, no personnel of the law-enforcement agencies were seen at the trouble spots, witnesses said.

They said that workers of political groups freely roamed on Sharea Faisal brandishing weapons, while the artery was closed as trucks, buses and large containers were placed at all entry and exit points of the thoroughfare. Sharea Faisal is the only way to proceed from the airport to the Sindh High Court, which was completely blocked off since late Friday night and opened late on Saturday afternoon.

The police high command denied having blocked roads or erected barricades, saying that some miscreants had blocked the entry and exit points of Sharea Faisal besides other streets. Observers, however, said that Sharea Faisal was blocked in an organised way and police officials were seen placing containers on every opening of the main road.

Although the Capital City Police Officer, Azhar Farooqi, said the police were deployed at all important and sensitive places in the city, sizeable contingents of police were seen sitting idle on the streets near Shaheen Complex, Arts Council, Fountain Roundabout, Metropole Hotel, Sindh Assembly Building and its adjoining areas.

Witnesses said that the police and rangers were not around when two groups clashed in Patel Para on Business Recorder Road. A private television channel on Business Recorder Road, which telecast live visuals of gun-brandishing youths of a political party, came under heavy fire. The police were continuously called by the TV channel officials and area people, but the law-enforcers remained absent from the scene for hours.

A fierce clash between two groups took place near Kalaboard in Malir, spreading to the neighbourhood.

Here, too, law-enforcers remained invisible. Due to the absence of the police and rangers, the armed clash was prolonged, in which many people were killed and injured.

Another clash between the two groups occurred in front of the Drigh Colony Railway Station, where firing between the two groups continued for hours.

The motorcade of Sherry Rehman, the PPPP’s Information Secretary, came under attack near the COD intersection, causing her driver to suffer a bullet wound. However, no personnel of the law-enforcement agencies was there to bring the deteriorating situation under control.

“Political activists seem to have taken over the job of policing, as they have occupied all streets and roads and are keeping a vigilant eye on the onlookers and passers-by,” a resident of Burns Road remarked.

Almost all violent activities took place between Baloch Colony Bridge on Sharea Faisal and Malir City on the National Highway. Ironically, there was no presence of police on the patch.

The absence of police and rangers on the violent spots could be judged from the fact that not a single suspected attacker or miscreant was arrested by the law-enforcers.

Sources at the airport told Dawn that a heavy contingent of police reached the PIA International Cargo Complex near Jinnah Terminal and forced the staff to provide them fork-lift trucks and their operators. They said the PIA staff, however, initially refused to comply with the demands, but later provided them with a heavy fork-lift truck and an operator.

Parking of large buses and minibuses, and then the deflating of their tyres and placing large containers was not the work of one man or a small group, observers claimed.

They questioned where the police were when large containers were being placed on various roads across the city, especially on all openings of Sharea Faisal.