PAKISTAN: KARACHI: MQM CALL FOR TALKS TO END BLOODSHED

Описание: (4 Jul 1995) English/Nat

The exiled leader of Karachi's Mohajir Qoumi Movement has called for international intervention to bring an end to the bloodshed in the Pakistani city.

In an important move, his political party has agreed to talks with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's government following a weekend of violence in which 48 people were killed.

Altaf Hussain, the leader of the MQM, adorns the party's posters.

But he leads the Mohajir Qoumi Movement in self-imposed exile from London.

The political party represents Muslims who migrated to Pakistan from India when the British India was divided into two nations in 1947.

The MQM has 26 seats in parliament and seeks greater political clout for the immigrant Muslims or Mohajirs who make up some 70 percent of Karachi's 12 million (m) people.

Some militant extremists within the MQM have for the past several years been carrying out a bloody campaign against the government killing hundreds of people .

The government crackdown on the MQM has been equally violent .

Altaf Hussain has called for outside help to bring a lasting peace to the city.

SOUNDBITE:
For the fruitful negotiations, international intervention or U.N international is required. So this is the ... not demand but the Mohajir, the entire Mohajir nation wants intervention
SUPER CAPTION: Altaf Hussain, MQM Leader

In rioting over the weekend in which 48 people were killed , the MQM demanded the release from jail of hundreds of their supporters.

They have the upper hand in Karachi, where they call a complete business shutdown every Friday and Saturday to paralyze the nation's financial and commercial centre.

Government security forces have failed to contain the violence, which is often randomly directed at civilians to spread terror.

The MQM claims they have been provoked into acts of violence because they are discriminated against - the very name they give themselves, Mohajir means refugee and reinforces the belief that they are unwelcome in the Muslim state.

SOUNDBITE:
We are not demanding anything extraordinary, we are just demanding our fundamental constitutional rights according to our population ratio. And we want equal treatment like others . We are being- what is the situation- we are being treated as a third rate citizens. We are being treated like prisoners of war. We are being treated like occupied nation. And the genocide of Mohajirs, the genocide of Mohajirs is going on over there.
SUPER CAPTION: Altaf Hussain, MQM Leader

An uneasy calm returned to Karachi following the weekend's clashes.

Even though peace talks with Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party are reported to start on Thursday, the ethnic violence is unlikely to end so quickly.

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