Nine dead as Karachi protests turn deadly

KARACHI: At least nine people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday after protests erupted near the United States Consulate General, Karachi, as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement personnel in the city’s upscale Mai Kolachi area.

According to the executive director of the trauma centre at Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Mohammad Sabir Memon, nine men were pronounced dead and 32 others injured following unrest outside the consulate.

The protests were triggered by the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in what Iranian authorities described as coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran a day earlier.

An Edhi Foundation statement said law enforcement personnel resorted to tear gas shelling and baton charges to disperse protesters as tensions escalated, a report by DAWN News said on Sunday. The policemen also sustained injuries from hard and blunt instruments.

Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar sought an immediate report from Karachi Additional Inspector General of Police Azad Khan regarding the situation.

“No one will be allowed to take the law into their hands,” Lanjar said in a statement issued by his office. He directed authorities to enhance security at sensitive installations, ensure law enforcement agencies remained on high alert and maintain traffic flow through alternative routes.

“Action will be taken in accordance with the law against elements disturbing law and order,” he warned.

Keamari Senior Superintendent of Police Amjad Ahmed Shaikh mobilised additional police contingents to reinforce security at key locations.

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