A Pakistani man shouts for help to remove an injured victim from the site of bomb explosion in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. A powerful bomb in the center of Pakistan's largest city leveling a police building, killing scores of people and wounding many, police and witnesses said.Shakil Adil
At Karachi's giant Shershah car parts market, few customers dare to do business here after 13 shopkeepers were gunned down last month, part of a cycle of ethnic gang violence that is threatening to destabilize Pakistan's biggest city, a vital part of the country's flagging economy.
The year-long ethnic turf war, which is gathering pace and claims several victims each day, is far bloodier than violence from religious extremists, which also plagues the megacity of 18 million people.
Last week, the compound of the anti-terror police in Karachi was demolished by a car bomb, killing 18 people, an attack blamed on a group allied to al-Qaeda. But, unlike the rest of Pakistan, attacks by Islamic extremists remain relatively rare in Karachi.
For years, one ethnic-based party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), had a stranglehold on Karachi. Now, two other ethnic groups with violent elements have emerged to challenge it, with the bloodshed at Shershah market one grim outcome.
The port of Karachi carries half of all supplies to coalition forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. By some estimates, the city accounts for between 25 and 30 per cent of Pakistan's economy, making it a supremely lucrative target for money-hungry gangs from poor neighbourhoods.
A senior Karachi security official said that police were "powerless" to stop the ethnic bloodshed, as each warring group enjoyed political patronage. He warned that if it continued, the city could end up like Beirut, with clans fighting it out from enclaves across the city.
The MQM dismisses accusations of it dominating violence and extortion in Karachi as propaganda from its enemies.
"In Karachi, it is the MQM versus the rest," said Haider Rizvi, a member of the national parliament from Karachi for the MQM. "We have been painted so black that even if a cat is killed, it is blamed on us."
Last month, the mix of criminal, ethnic and sectarian killing claimed 169 lives, with 1,300 dying in violence in Karachi over the past year, according to the Citizens Police Liaison Committee, an official organization that holds the police to account. Most of the victims belonged to no political party but were targeted because of their ethnicity: roadside vendors, drivers of auto-rickshaws and shopkeepers.
Most of the traders at Shershah are mohajirs, descendants of people who immigrated from India, decades ago, the support base for the MQM. The killers, according to the shop owners and the police, were a gang of ethnic Baloch, who are associated with another political party, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
The third major force is Karachi is the huge population of ethnic Pashtuns, linked with the Awami National Party. The Baloch come from the adjacent sparsely populated province of Balochistan, while Pashtuns are the main ethnic group in northwest Pakistan, though all these groups have been established in Karachi for generations.
Ironically, all three parties warring on the streets are in the coalition government. That means the fighting in Karachi regularly rocks the government in Islamabad and could yet bring it down.
In Shershah market, amid a maze of alleyways containing hundreds of tiny shops selling car parts, one trader quietly told how gunmen arrived on motorbikes last month, pulled up the steel shutters of his store and shot dead his two sons.
"They shot them as if they were infidels," said the shop owner, who did not want his name used for fear of his safety. "We are not linked to any political party. We were just doing our business. What was our fault?"
The shop owner said that he, along with every other outlet in the market, was paying extortion money to Baloch gangs, which are based in the adjacent Lyari area, a run-down district that is the stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Saleem Hingoro, a member of the provincial parliament for the Pakistan Peoples Party for Karachi's Lyari area, said his party doesn't support the Baloch gangs.
But Mr. Hingoro added: "Criminals are taking shelter in every political party. If the parties stopped giving criminals shelter, the killing would stop. But all the parties would need to do this together."