Moderate to intense firing with sophisticated arms was resorted to by gangsters since morning. Traders pulled down their shutters and parents stopped their children from leaving for schools.
Residents of Singoo Lane, Chawkiwara, Kalri, Shah Beg Lane, Baghdadi and other localities said that there had been a series of sporadic shooting following a gun battle between two groups of criminals somewhere in the area. Reports said that the clash was in reaction to the death of a man stated to be a relative of a gang leader. The reports, however, could not be confirmed till late in the night.
In Baghdadi, bonfires were lit along Shah Latif Bhitai Road to disrupt movement of vehicular traffic and gangsters pelted moving vehicles with stones.
A resident of Singoo Lane complained that criminals had been indulging in armed clashes for long but frequency of such incidents had remarkably decreased following the deployment of Rangers in the troubled areas of Lyari. He said the situation had again been turning from bad to worse with the withdrawal of the Rangers.
Activists of various community-based organisations and elders of the area have appealed to the government to consider redeployment of Rangers in the affected areas of the town as police have utterly failed to bring the law and order situation under control.
Residents of Baghdadi have also expressed their serious concern over the armed clashes between rival gangs which, they said, had become order of the day. They recalled that two brothers, Rafiq and Jehangir, were killed in the locality on the eve of Eidul Fitr. Jehangir lived abroad and had returned home recently to celebrate Eid with his family.
There are reports that several families living in Kalakot, Rexer Lane and Singoo Lane were moving to some other areas to escape violence but most others could not consider shifting owing to their weak financial position.
On their part, police claimed the fresh incidents of shooting and the prevailing tension had nothing to do with the infamous gang warfare involving drug and arms cartels.
“Actually activists of a political party had staged a series of protest demonstrations and we have received reports that some of the protesters had resorted to firing in to the air,” said SP Fayyaz Khan. He said the shooting scared shopkeepers who pulled down their shutters.
He said the leadership of the party was approached with a request to keep the demonstrations peaceful. The request was responded positively and shooting stopped in the afternoon, he claimed. The SP said no one was arrested in connection with shooting.
PPP protest
A shutter-down was observed in parts of Lyari Town on Thursday in protest against a police raid on the residence of a PPP leader, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who also acted as a key member of the security team constituted for the protection of the party chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, PPI adds.
Protest demonstrations were held in different localities and the participants placed burning tyres in the middle of several roads to disrupt traffic movement.