KARACHI, Sept 29: Police baton charged participants of a funeral procession and arrested more than three dozen mourners on Sunday when they turned violent on Sharea Faisal and in Saddar on their way to the Christian Cemetery for burial of four of the dead men who were shot in Rimpa Plaza on Wednesday.

Last rites of the four Christian victims of terrorism were performed at a church on Sunday and they were laid to rest in local cemeteries.

Heavy contingents of police and paramilitary forces were deployed to maintain law and order. Mourners near Lucky Star chowk in Saddar and at the traffic signal near Hotel Regent Plaza could not control their emotions and some of them smashed the windscreens of vehicles and uprooted three traffic signals.

Police and paramilitary forces controlled the situation. A police officer said: “We had to fire teargas shells when the situation was about to go beyond control.”

Police arrested 50 people from among the mourners for breach of peace, rioting and damaging private and government property, etc.

Witnesses said more than 25 vehicles were damaged, and some people pelted police with stones, but the situation was quickly brought under control. Mourners also resorted to agitation at the cemetery and tried to take law into their hands. Police lobbed teargas shells and resorted to light baton charge to disperse the agitated mourners.

Earlier, the bodies of Jan Muneer, Mushtaq Roshan and Aslam Martin were brought to St Patrick’s Cathedral for funeral services. The body of Aslam Martin was brought from Essa Nagri through National Stadium, TV Station, Bahadurabad and Sharea Faisal. Some of the mourners stoned shops near National Stadium. Police and paramilitary forces controlled the situation.

The body of Iqbal Allah Rakha was taken out from his residence in Sooba Nagar, Dastagir, and he was buried in a cemetery in Old Golimar.

Two other victims, Benjamin Talib and Kamran Anjum, were buried on Saturday. Edwin Foster was laid to rest on Wednesday, the day when the incident took place.

Hundreds of mourners wearing black armbands had gathered to attend the last rites on the Church’s premises and outside its compound.

There was a heavy police presence around the building, and the paramilitary Rangers were seen patrolling streets surrounding the Church.

Seven people were killed and another was seriously injured when armed men opened fire on them in their office on the third floor of the multi-storey Rimpa Plaza on Wednesday. Nine people were in the office when terrorists struck there in the morning. The electronic door of the office, the only entrance, cannot be opened from outside. But Robin Piran Ditta, who escaped unhurt, told police that he had gone out to buy milk, and he had not closed the door. When he returned, two armed men pounced upon him, and they beat him with kicks and blows. The terrorists spared his life.

The terrorists had made all the eight victims sit in chairs, tied them to the chairs and shot them in their heads with single bullet. Seven of them died on the spot. Robin Sharif was rushed to a government hospital in serious condition. He was later shifted to a private hospital where he has been struggling for life.