KARACHI: Police on Tuesday launched a crackdown on the main protest organized by the religio-political party Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), leaving several, including cleric Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi, injured, according to a spokesperson for the group.
The MWM has been staging sit-ins at over 10 locations in Karachi since last week to protest against sectarian violence in the northwestern Kurram district. Home to around 600,000 people, Kurram is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and has long been a hotspot for tribal and sectarian conflicts, with authorities struggling to maintain control.
The area’s volatile situation has necessitated travel in convoys escorted by security personnel, but this measure failed to prevent a deadly ambush on November 21, when gunmen attacked a convoy, killing 52 people, mostly Shias.
At least 136 people have so far lost their lives in the violence that followed, as a grand jirga, or traditional council of political and tribal elders, continues efforts to mediate between rival factions, though the unrest has now spilled beyond Kurram.
Police in Karachi moved against the central MWM protest camp at Numaish Chowrangi on Tuesday afternoon after days of complaints that life in the city had been brought to a near standstill, triggering clashes during the crackdown.
“Alama Hasan Zafar Naqvi is among many wounded in police attack,” Ahmer Naqvi, spokesperson of MWM told Arab News.
Prior to that, police and paramilitary Rangers used tear gas to disperse protesters and cleared Abul Hasan Isfahani Road near Abbas Town and Kamran Chowrangi in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
Addressing a press conference, Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi condemned the action and vowed that the group would not only continue its sit-in but also expand it to other parts of the city.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah took notice of protesters setting vehicles on fire, his office said in a statement.
“No permission will be given to cause damage to public or private property in any form,” Shah was quoted as saying. “Everyone has the right to protest, but damaging city property in this manner is incitement to violence.”
The CM said legal action would be taken against those who set vehicles on fire. Shah also directed the police to improve the situation in Karachi.
“The chief minister has instructed the additional inspector general of police to eliminate disorder in the city and submit an immediate report,” the statement said.
The Karachi police chief on Monday warned demonstrators of action if the protests continued to disrupt public life.
The Ahle-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the MWM’s rival religious group, also threatened to hold counter-protests at 60 locations in Karachi if the MWM sit-in was not brought to an end.
Karachi police crack down on religio-political party’s days-long protest
https://arab.news/zby79
Karachi police crack down on religio-political party’s days-long protest
- Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen is holding sit-in protests in solidarity with people of violence-hit Kurram district
- The Karachi police chief warned demonstrators of action a day earlier if they continued to disrupt public life
Hundreds of migrants, including Pakistanis, land in Greece after search operation at sea
- Rescued migrants were taken to a temporary facility on Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini
- Greece has made deportations of rejected asylum seekers a priority under its migration policy
ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 540 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken to a temporary facility on the nearby island of Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini, a Coast Guard official said, adding most of the migrants were men from Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan.
In a separate incident on Thursday, the EU’s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women from two migrant boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek Coast Guard said.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum seekers will be a priority.
