Mob wrecks KFC, banks in power riot

Hundreds of people protesting against power cuts ransacked a KFC outlet and two banks in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, police said yesterday.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the mob late Wednesday and security remained tight across the sprawling port city, whose 12mn inhabitants are experiencing the worst electricity shortage in memory.

“The situation really went bad after the attack on KFC and on public and private vehicles. Security has now been tightened and forces have been deployed at sensitive places,” city police chief Azhar Farooqi said.
He said more than a dozen people had been arrested.
The protesters began by hurling stones and using burning tyres to block the main road leading to the airport in eastern Karachi, resulting in a massive traffic jam, witnesses said.
They later moved on to the KFC where they smashed up the furniture and windows and badly damaged two nearby banks.

A week of protests over continuing power cuts has now spread to many parts of Karachi amid a blistering heatwave that has claimed about 100 lives in the past fortnight.
There have also been problems in other parts of the country. An 18-year-old in northwestern Pakistan last week committed suicide with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in what his family said was a protest against the shortages.

The government says it has taken urgent steps to correct the situation, which analysts say poses fresh problems for President Pervez Musharraf amid a political crisis over his suspension of Pakistan’s chief justice. Police and paramilitary troops were meanwhile making preparations ahead of protests scheduled by Islamic parties today against Britain’s award of a knighthood to novelist Salman Rushdie.

source:www.gulf-times.com