Karachi violence claim at least 35 lives in last 24 hours

KARACHI: At least 35 people were killed in 24 hours in Karachi, officials said Tuesday, as interior minister described the city as enduring "a reign of terror and bloodshed".

Authorities have struggled to end nightly gunbattles raging across in Karachi, with political, ethnic and criminal rivalries leaving more than 200 people dead last month.

Much of the fighting has been blamed on supporters of two political paties.

Hundreds of extra police and paramilitary troops have been deployed on the streets of Karachi, a diverse and congested port city of about 17 million people, but the cycle of civil strife has worsened in recent weeks.

"Our figures show that during the last 24 hours, 35 people have died in the violence, many of whom died in shootings overnight," provincial home department official Sharfuddin Memon told AFP on Tuesday.

Interior minister Rehman Malik said aerial surveillance would start over the city's most troubled neighbourhoods.

"We have ordered surveillance planes to be brought to Karachi for locating and weeding out the killers, who have let loose a reign of terror and bloodshed in the city," Malik said in a statement on Tuesday.

Memon said gunfire could be heard on Tuesday in one of the worst-affected districts, the Surjani neighbourhood.

"The criminals want to destabilise the efforts for a permanent peace in the city," he said.

A security official confirmed the latest death toll.

Police officers said dozens of motorcycles were set alight inside a factory and a roadside restaurant and several vehicles were also torched.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in a recent report described Karachi as being in the grip of political, ethnic and sectarian "polarisation".

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011