Senior Sunni Muslim cleric gunned down in Karachi, sparking unrest

[mom cat]

( Not a dupe but an update)

Senior Sunni Muslim cleric gunned down in Karachi, sparking unrest
By Zarar Khan, Associated Press, 5/30/2004 14:16

http://www.myantiwar.org/view/20275.html

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) Thousands of Sunni Muslims rampaged through this volatile southern Pakistani city Sunday, ransacking property and stoning vehicles after unidentified gunmen assassinated an influential pro-Taliban cleric.

Enraged by the drive-by shooting of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, rioters set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast food restaurant, and traded gunfire with security forces, leaving more than a dozen people injured.

Tens of thousand of mourners later gathered for the evening funeral, where police fired warning shots above the crowd.

Shamzai, in his 70s, had met Osama bin Laden and was a strong supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. The soft-spoken cleric was shot dead as he traveled in a pickup truck to his Sunni Muslim religious school in the east of the city.

Witnesses told police that as many as six gunmen riding in two cars and on a motorcycle opened fire on Shamzai's vehicle, wounding one of his sons, a nephew, his driver and a police bodyguard.

No one claimed responsibility for the shooting, which Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali condemned as a ''dastardly act of terrorism.''

In the riots, Sunni Muslim students, some shouting slogans against rival Shiite Muslims, took to the streets. Paramilitary forces were deployed to protect Shiite mosques, amid fears of sectarian violence

[pinto]

1. I am seriously confused. Sunni? Taliban? Thought the two were disparate.

[mom cat]

2. Confusion comes from the simplistic categorizations of the Western press.

[0007]

3. Any U.S. fingerprints on this rubout?

[mom cat]

4. I Don't know, but there in an increased Pakistani crackdown

on militants.

[cjm2222]

5. In Pakistan

the Shiites and Sunnis have been fighting for quite awhile. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the hostilities between the two groups. Who knows, though? Anything is possible.

[Ironpost]

6. No one claimed responsibility

Makes me think probably some more schrub blood