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In Pakistan, 21 dead in Karachi violence

By the CNN Wire Staff
Pakistani volunteers carry an unidentified body to a hospital in Karachi after Tuesday's attack.
Pakistani volunteers carry an unidentified body to a hospital in Karachi after Tuesday's attack.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: Deaths occurred in five incidents
  • NEW: At least 69 people have been killed since Saturday
  • NEW: 19 people were injured
  • Police believe the recent violence is linked to an August assassination
RELATED TOPICS
  • Karachi
  • Pakistan

(CNN) -- At least 21 people died in a wave of violence in the volatile city of Karachi on Tuesday, police in Pakistan said.

Attackers struck a prominent marketplace and four other locations. Gunmen on motorbikes killed 12 people at the Kabari Market.

Rafiq Gul, a senior police official in Karachi, said it is not known whether the same group was responsible for the other strikes. At least 19 people were wounded in the violence.

At least 69 people have been killed in Pakistan's largest city over the last four days, including Tuesday's victims.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani issued a statement saying "those playing with innocent lives are surely the enemies of the people of Pakistan and the state so it is the duty of all to stand against such elements."

Gilani urged people to "sit together to resolve the issue and prepare a joint strategy to defeat the militant elements who are destroying the peace of Karachi."

Police believe recent violence in the city is connected to the assassination of a prominent politician in August.

The killings began Saturday ahead of a provincial by-election to replace the assassinated lawmaker from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a liberal political party whose stronghold is Karachi.

The MQM, one of the largest parties in Pakistan, is part of President Asif Ali Zardari's ruling coalition.

The Awami National Party, a political rival to MQM, boycotted the vote -- which the MQM won by a vast majority -- after demands to use election monitors were rejected.

The MQM mainly represents Urdu-speaking people, who migrated to Pakistan from India during partition in 1947, while the Awami National Party represents Pashto speakers -- more of whom are moving to Karachi from northwest Pakistan for jobs.

MQM is wary of the potential strengthening of a second political or ethnic group in its stronghold of Karachi, and the two parties have been engaged in bloody battles for years.