KARACHI, June 20, Reuter: Authorities called in troops to keep order in riottorn areas of Karachi today as the death toll in Pakistan’s latest ethnic violence rose to four. Witnesses said soldiers patrolled Shah Faisal colony and Green Town suburbs near the airport in army trucks and set up roadblocks to check for smuggled arms.
Residents told reporters they welcomed the troops and felt secure for the first time after three days of unrest between of rival Mohajir and Pashtun militants.
Two people died of bullet wounds in Shah Faisal yesterday in a battle which police ended by firing warning shots in the air.
A hospital doctor in another district said a young man died of a bullet wound. A threeyearold girl hit by a teargas shell on Thursday also died.
More than 250 people have been killed over the past eight months in clashes between the Pashtuns, who come from northwest Pakistan, and Mohajir immigrants from other parts of the subcontinent.
Police would not give any figure for arrests. Witnesses said more than 70 people had been detained in the three days.
Troops have been called in several times before to end ethnic bloodshed in Karachi, usually backed by curfew on parts of the city of over seven million people.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1987
