Wave of Political Killings Hits Southern Pakistan

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Source: ABC News

Dozens of people have been killed in Pakistan's largest city including four found Sunday — three of them headless — in a wave of targeted attacks among rival political groups that some say is aimed at destabilizing the country's ruling coalition.

Political violence is common in Karachi, but the shootings and decapitations since Jan. 1 have terrorized parts of this teeming southern metropolis, prompting the government to send in paramilitary forces to restore order.

The political infighting comes at a time when the government is facing a raging Taliban-led insurgency that has spread to Karachi and killed more than 600 people across the country in the past three months. The growing unrest in the financial capital threatens to spark further instability.

"We have found four bodies of our party workers today," said Faisal Sabzwari, a provincial lawmaker from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the strongest political party in Karachi and one dominated by the minority Mohajir ethnic group.

"Three of them were headless, and we found the heads later on," Sabzwari told The Associated Press on Sunday.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9523468