KARACHI: Karachi police arrested forty five people on Sunday after clashes broke out during a Sindh Culture Day rally on Sharea Faisal, where participants allegedly pelted law enforcers with stones.
South Deputy Inspector General of Police Syed Asad Raza said police responded with a baton charge and tear gas shelling after coming under attack.
He said forty five people were detained on Sharea Faisal and the South SSP was at the scene with the situation under control. He added that with the Red Zone closed, alternative routes had been provided, but rally participants insisted on using the main Sharea Faisal from Jinnah Bridge despite police instructions to use the Lines Area route towards Saddar and the Karachi Press Club.
According to the DIG, five policemen were injured when stones were thrown, which prompted the use of tear gas to disperse the crowd. Police sources said the confrontation began when participants argued with police over being stopped at the Finance and Trade Centre flyover.
DIG Raza said an advisory had been issued ahead of the day’s cultural processions, instructing that no participant be allowed to move beyond the FTC as the route leads towards the Red Zone, which contains sensitive installations. He said police and rangers were deployed at the FTC bridge to enforce the diversion and prevent unauthorised entry into the area.
Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar took notice of the incident and ordered immediate action against those involved. In a phone call with the additional inspector general, he instructed that anyone damaging police vehicles or citizens’ property be arrested.
Sindh Cultural Day, first observed in 2009, is marked annually on the first Sunday of December with rallies, folk music events, seminars and cultural programmes across the province. DIG Raza recalled previous clashes during the event, including violent confrontations and damage to a police van last year, when some participants managed to cross into the Red Zone and reach the Karachi Press Club.
He said between seventeen thousand and eighteen thousand people from multiple rallies reached Fawara Chowk and the Karachi Press Club during the celebrations.
