KARACHI, Feb 7: The city braces itself for another shutdown on Friday following a strike call given by the Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) against the ongoing wave of killings. The strike call was backed by more than half a dozen Sunni organisations, traders, transporters, and, in a rare gesture, also by the Shia Ulema Council.

As the hearing of the Karachi suo-motu case continued in the Supreme Court, with the court disappointed with the performance of the city police, it seemed that religious parties were also not satisfied with the performance of the law-enforcement agencies. According to them, a strike is “the only way to protest against this menace”.

“The strike call is supported by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia, an organisation representing more than 10,000 seminaries and around 8,000 Iqra schools across the country, and five other organisations,” said Maulana Akbar Saeed Farooqi of the ASWJ.

“We all feel the pain of the brutality that has been going on in the city. Religious scholars and seminary students are also being targeted along the common people and no one knows the reason behind this menace. There is no doubt that the government has failed to protect lives of the common people and has thus lost the right to govern.”

He said that Friday’s strike was planned to get the ‘peaceful protest’ registered, and persuade the authorities to pay heed to the people’s concerns. No part of the country is facing ‘anarchy-like situation’ like Karachi, he added.

The most surprising announcement came from the Shia Ulema Council, supporting the ASWJ’s strike call while stressing that it would back every move made for peace and against terrorism.

“We have suffered the most in the recent wave of terrorism,” said Maulana Nazir Abbas Taqvi of the Shia Ulema Council. “We feel the same pain for those families whose loved ones fell prey to this madness, regardless of their sectarian association and their faith. Killing of every innocent man should be condemned by all sections.”

Maulana Taqvi said that the council supported the ‘shutdown appeal’ even though it had been made by the ASWJ and other Sunni organisations only to show its resolve against every kind of terrorism, especially in Karachi.

The Jamaat-i-Islami followed suit and its Karachi chief Muhammad Hussain Mehanti also announced in a statement issued on Thursday support for the ’peaceful strike’, and so did the traders’ and transport bodies, saying that they would support the strike call for ‘good reasons’.