KARACHI, Dec 7: A peace rally organised by the Joint Action Committee on Sunday demanded that the city be disarmed and declared free of weapons.

The speakers, comprising social workers, rights activists and labour leaders, sought the arrest of the miscreants involved in the recent violence and said that legal heirs of all those killed must be compensated. They appealed to the masses not to get misled by the vested interests of those who wanted to divide people on ethnic and sectarian lines.

Holding banners and placards, participants of the rally marched near the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam and chanted slogans in support of their demands.

Social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi regretted that people were being killed for some short-term political gains.

Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research demanded that all arms be flushed out from Karachi and the killers of innocent people be arrested and punished according to the law.

Labour leader Liaquat Sahi said that be it the May 12, 2007 mayhem or the recent violence, it usually was the poor who got killed whenever violence erupted in Karachi.

Advocate Iqbal Haider said the government had failed to maintain law and order. People felt insecure and wanted stern action against the miscreants involved in the recent violence, he added.