HYDERABAD, Aug 21: Nationalist parties and civil society organisations have condemned the Friday attack by terrorists in Chakra Goth area of Karachi and killing of peace-loving Baloch, Sindhi, Pakhtoon and Urdu-speaking people.

Leaders of the Awami Jamhoori Party alleged at a meeting that the authorities were patronising terrorists. Law-enforcement agencies eliminated terrorists in Wana and Bajaur but did nothing to keep Karachi under control.

The meeting said that terrorism in Karachi posed a serious threat to solidarity of the country and urged the government to curb criminal mafias and restore its writ in Karachi.

It accused the government of doing nothing to help the rain-affected people in Badin and other districts of lower Sindh. Millions of people have been rendered homeless by the rains and breaches in drains.

The meeting appealed to nationalist parties and Sindhi people to rise against the ineffective government and come to the help of the affected people. STP: Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has said a few thousand terrorists were trying to divide Sindh by force.

Terrorists attacked Chakra and Bilal Goths in Karachi and killed innocent people and torched the STP office, many shops and vehicles because their only fault was that they were Sindhis, he said.

Speaking at an Iftar party given in his honour on Saturday, Dr Magsi said that waderas and jagirdars had betrayed their motherland. They are taking decisions against Sindhi nation and Sindh.

Waderas, jagirdars, Pirs and Mirs, he said, were least concerned about the fate of Sindhi people because they were interested only in power.

He accused President Asif Zardari and PPP of trying to divide Sindh into two parts but said that Sindhi people had foiled the conspiracy.

AT: A large number of activists of Awami Tehrik, Sindhiani Tehrik and Sindhi Shagird Tehrik held a demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday in protest against murder of innocent Sindhi, Baloch, Pakhtoon and Urdu-speaking people in Karachi and the government's failure to provide relief to four million rain-affected people n lower Sindh.

Ms Husna Rahujo, Dr Sindhu Manganhar, Shaheena Khaskheli, Naveed Jarwar and Altaf Rahujo said that the PPP had handed over Karachi to terrorists where innocent people were being massacred.

They said that had the terrorists who had struck in 1988, on May 12, Oct 18, April 9 and in Nishtar Park been hanged, the situation in Karachi would have been quite different today.

They urged the Chief Justice of Supreme Court to take notice of the May 12 and other incidents.

Our Sukkur correspondent adds: Activists of a number of nationalist parties took out processions and held demonstrations in Tangwani, Thull and Jacobabad towns on Sunday in protest against the attack on Chakra Goth by terrorists and killing of innocent people.

In Jacobabad, STP activists took out a procession which marched through main roads before terminating at the press club where the activists held a demonstration.

Local leaders of the party said that the Sindh government had failed to protect Sindhi people in Karachi. Terrorists attacked Chakra Goth and fired indiscriminately on innocent people, they said.

They criticised the government for its failure to bring the culprits to book.

In Thull, STP, Sindh United Party and Awami Tehrik held separate demonstrations outside the press club and in Tangwani a procession was taken out by Awami Tehrik.