* Police, paramilitary personnel patrol nearly empty streets * Stock market stays closed, attendance in public, private offices remains thin
KARACHI: Karachi shut down on Friday as religious and political leaders responded to a strike call of the Sunni Rehbar Council to mourn the killing of at least 44 people in the Ashura blast on Monday.
Traffic was thin and all shopping centres as well as the Karachi Stock Exchange remained closed.
“The stock market was closed today because of the strike,” director of the bourse Zafar Motiwala told AFP.
Political parties, transporters and traders had also endorsed the strike call.
However, all public and private schools and colleges remained open as the Education Ministry had not announced a holiday, but attendance remained thin owing to unavailability of public transport.
Patrols: Police and paramilitary forces carried out patrols. But traders were taking no chances, Reuters reported.
“We are already losing business and can’t take the risk of going out today and opening our shops,” said Saleem Ahmed, who sells electronics at one of the city’s markets.
“If something happens or anyone comes and damages, say, one refrigerator or deep freezer, I will lose more money than what I would have earned the whole day, so I better stay home.”
While investors have got used to almost daily attacks in FATA and the NWFP, violence in Karachi has a much more direct impact on financial markets and investor sentiment.
Analysts fear further attacks could raise doubts about the prospects of recovery for the country’s economy, now in virtual recession as gross domestic product growth in the 2008/09 fiscal year of two percent is about the same as population growth.
Awami National Party Sindh President Shahi Syed welcomed the peaceful strike to mourn the deaths of those killed in the “brutal and cowardly planned attack on innocent people” and demanded a judicial inquiry into the blast and violence that followed.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement also welcomed the strike in the city.
Karachi Transport Ittehad President Irshad Hussain Bukhari urged the government to compensate the transporters whose vehicles were torched by rioters.
The Sindh Goods Truck-Trailer Owners Association demanded the government arrest the rioters who set ablaze the property of people asking that those responsible be hanged publicly.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said terrorist were trying to paralyse the economic nerve centre of Pakistan, as the military pushed an air and ground offensive against Taliban strongholds in northwestern regions.
“Those elements who are creating trouble in Karachi are trying to destabilise Pakistan, because Karachi is the heart of Pakistan,” Malik told reporters, adding that a government investigation would be complete by Saturday.
The minister appealed to residents to remain calm and vowed that the “culprits would not be spared.”
Shortly after the interior minister spoke, a local television station reported that authorities had discovered 41 bombs near Lahore, Reuters reported.
Terrorists have become increasingly brazen in their bid to topple the government and impose their brand of Islam, including public floggings and executions for anyone who disobeys them.
The Karachi carnage illustrated their reach is growing, from bastions on the Afghan border to cities, including an attack on a mosque near the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Attacks blamed on extremists have killed about 2,800 people in 29 months, according to an AFP tally. fawad ali shah/agencies
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