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KARACHI, Oct 19: A complete and entirely voluntary shutdown was observed on Friday as citizens chose to remain indoors to mourn Thursday’s carnage in which, according to the Sindh home department, 134 people lost their lives and 450 loyalists of the Pakistan People’s Party were injured.
Most of the city appeared deserted with the silence echoing the predominant atmosphere of sorrow and gloom. In some areas, however, frustrated crowds vented their anger by burning tyres in protest of the double bomb attack on what had been planned as Benazir Bhutto’s triumphant homecoming.
The volume of both public and private transport was reduced to its bare minimum while all petrol pumps and gas stations remained closed. Similarly, all major markets and shopping centres were closed and in almost every locality, the majority of the shopkeepers kept their shutters pulled down. Only a few shops selling items of daily use such as fresh milk, meat, vegetables, fruit and pan-cigarette kiosks were open for business — most of the city’s restaurants and eateries remained closed.
The daily business of life was affected likewise. All educational institutions were officially closed and the attendance in private and public offices was so thin that most of them did not even open.
No legal proceedings were held in the city courts and the authorities did not make the usual arrangements for the production of under-trial prisoners.
A little activity was witnessed after noon when people left their houses to offer Juma prayers. Thursday’s events were recalled when prayer leaders across the city’s mosques condemned the killings and prayed for the victims.
The complete shutdown and the absence of public transport did not disrupt the schedules of flights and trains as passengers reached the airport and railway stations using private vehicles and the few auto-rickshaws and cabs that appeared on the roads. However, the closure of petrol and gas stations caused inconvenience to whatever commuters there were, most of whom were employees in the essential services, since many did not have enough fuel to reach their offices.
Under any other circumstances, one may have thought that it was a holiday. But the pall of gloom enveloping the city was reflected in the absence of amateur cricketers in the abandoned streets and the deserted parks and recreational spots — otherwise the usual phenomena during strikes and shutdowns.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Azhar Ali Farooqi told Dawn that no major incident of violence was reported from any part of the city. “There were some minor incidents of tyre-burning in some areas but the police brought the situation under control without having to resort to strict action,” he said.
Witnesses said that groups of angry PPP workers took to the streets in Lyari and Malir, the party’s main strongholds. According to the people of the area, the protestors blocked the road from Cheel Chowk to Bakra Piri in Kalakot and from Aath Chowk to Mira Naka in Chakiwara. They said that frustrated workers also demolished a police kiosk in Lyari, and claimed that the police fired a few teargas shells to disperse protestors when they pelted the law enforcers with stones. In parts of Malir, demonstrators lit bonfires on the streets.
However, no public or private property in any part of the city was reported as having been attacked by protestors.
