KARACHI, April 10: Thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled the streets of the city on Thursday after a day of violent incidents sparked off by a protest held by a group of lawyers at the City Courts on Wednesday. The violence left at least 10 people dead and several others wounded.

“Some 20,000 security personnel have been deployed to patrol the streets, check vehicles and guard courthouses, schools and markets,” city police chief Niaz Siddiqi said on Thursday.

Three armed men were arrested in connection with the Wednesday violence, he added.

The unrest appeared the most serious to buffet the new government as it prepared to assail President Pervez Musharraf’s powers.

The violence began when a group of lawyers affiliated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), held a demonstration outside the City Courts against an assault by a mob on a former cabinet minister, Dr Sher Afgan, in Lahore on Tuesday. Police and witnesses said some lawyers leaving a Karachi Bar Association (KBA) meeting on the City Courts premises got involved in a scuffle with the pro-MQM lawyers. About eight people were injured.

Minutes later, men in civilian clothes arrived and began shooting, looting and torching cars, witnesses said.

An office block near the courts was set ablaze and six charred bodies, including at least one of a lawyer, were found on the sixth floor.

Police and hospital officials said that a paramedic and a passer-by were killed by gunfire, and that the injured included a seven-year-old child with a bullet wound to the head.

A bus driver who was shot and a lawyer injured in the clashes died later in a hospital.

Rashid Razvi, Secretary General of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), denied the unrest was triggered by a clash between rival groups of lawyers.

“A group of goons attacked the lawyers. Everybody knows who these people are,” he said without naming anyone. “Nobody can suppress our struggle for the restoration of the judges and the judiciary.”

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the violence and urged citizens of Karachi to remain calm. He appealed to “all political forces to ensure peace and harmony in the metropolitan city in order to support political stability.”

But the incident could be a setback to his coalition’s effort to woo political rivals and cement the country’s return to democracy after years of military rule.

On Wednesday, leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement blamed “unidentified elements” — code in the country’s conspiracy-ridden politics for intelligence agencies aligned with the military — of trying to sabotage their new understanding.

But there was bitter sniping between the MQM and the PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif, the No.2 player in the coalition.—AP