Nineteen killed on second day of Karachi violence

KARACHI: After the loss of ten lives on Tuesday in a new upsurge in violence in the city, another 19 people, including five passengers of a minibus, were killed and dozens others injured on Wednesday, taking the death toll to 29 in two days.
The violence which broke out in Orangi Town spread to Lyari, Baldia Town, Site and Gulshan-i-Iqbal areas.
Police said that armed men hijacked the minibus from Rashid Minhas Road and shot the five passengers, three of them relatives, in the head. The assailants managed to escape after dumping the vehicle in the Ziaul Haq Colony in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.In a few hours after Wednesday midnight, at least five people were killed in different parts of the city.
Police said that armed men on motorcycles shot dead two people near Met Office on the University Road.
In Garden area, two watchmen in the furniture market were gunned down in front of Madni Masjid.
At about the same time, a car came under fire and a man was killed and another injured.
A spokesman for the Awami National Party claimed that at least two of its workers were killed and seven wounded in incidents of firing on Wednesday.
Although the government claimed to have sent further reinforcements of police and Rangers to the affected areas, law-enforcement personnel failed to quell the violence.
Police claimed to have arrested 12 suspects in Orangi Town and recovered some weapons from them.