KARACHI, PAKISTAN, Oct. 3, Reuter: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan vowed on Monday to crush gunmen responsible for the killing of at least 264 people in Pakistan’s worst violence in recent years.
On a flying Visit to Hyderabad, where 182 people were gunned down at random last Friday, he said the government knew who ‘was responsible and would eliminate them with an iron hand, the official news agency APP reported.
Ishag Khan said the massacre, which sparked ethnic rioting in Karachi, was aimed at creating instability and destroying the unity of Pakistan. He did not elaborate.
He said there had been lapses by the administration and promised to tighten security. New deterrent punishments for carrying arms illegally would be announced soon.
Hyderabad, second city of Sindh province, has been under curfew since Friday. But doctors said three bodies and five injured people were brought to hospitals on Monday after fresh shootings in the city.
Doctors in Karachi said 10 corpses and a dozen injured people were brought to hospitals, taking the death toll in Pakistan’s biggest City and business capital to at least 74.
A potential flashpoint, a religious procession by Karachi’s Shi’ite Moslem minority, passed peacefully on Monday under heavy police and army surveillance.
Ishaq Khan, who took over as care taker President on the death in August of General Mohammad ZiaUlHagq, retuned to Karachi later for talks on law and order with the provincial government.
Opposition politicians have criticized the authorities for failing to prevent the bloodshed and denounced the massacre as an attempt to forestall November’s general elections.
Ishaq Khan said the elections would go ahead on schedule,
Speaking to city leaders in Hyderabad, he said the time had come for stern action and that the government had been too lenient with people seeking to undermine national unity.
He said the massacre was not ethnically motivated.
Militants of the Mohajir Immigrant community have said they were the main target of the attack.
Sindhi nationalists, who have clashed with the mohajirs repeatedly in recent months, say members of both communities were gunned down at random.
Eyewitnesses said the President’s motorcade was conspicuous in the almost deserted streets. No break in the curfew was permitted on Monday and housewife’s contacted by telephone complained they were running short of supplies.
A two hour break on Sunday was cut short when gunmen opened fire from rooftops Killing five people official sources said.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 7, 1988
