Tension grips Karachi after MQM worker's killing

Tension prevailed here today in Pakistan's biggest city and financial hub after MQM chief Altaf Hussain announced countrywide protests over the killing of a party worker in Punjab province.
Dismissing the central committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi and London, Hussain called on all party workers and supporters to hold countrywide protests till the killers of party activist Bao Anwar in Sialkot are arrested.
Hussain addressing his workers at the party headquarters in Karachi over the phone from London slammed the central coordination members for not reacting to the activists killing last night.
"These people on the central committee have resorted to even selling grounds and lanes in Karachi to make money. They have brought a bad name to the party, I don't need them at all, they are banished," he said.

The committee members include those elected on MQM tickets to the national and provincial assemblies.
Soon after Hussain's call for countrywide protests people started rushing home from offices and businesses as petrol pumps and markets started to shut down resulting in chaos and heavy traffic gridlocks in many areas of the city.