August 23, 1990, Reuters / New York Times, Armed Raids in Pakistan Kill 27 Mohajirs,

August 23, 1990, Reuters / New York Times, Armed Raids in Pakistan Kill 27 Mohajirs,

Masked gunmen killed 27 people and wounded 83 today in raids on members of Pakistan's powerful Mohajir national movement, hospital officials said.

The police confirmed 19 deaths and said that at least 48 other people had bullet wounds.

The gunmen attacked 12 makeshift camps set up in Karachi by members of the Mohajir group waiting to welcome their leader home from London, where he had been undergoing medical treatment.

The Mohajir movement, founded by Muslims from India who resettled here when the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, set up camps and street stalls and illuminated streets in Karachi to celebrate the return on Thursday of the leader, Altaf Hussain.

There was no word on the identity or motivation of the gunmen, who struck on motorcycles. But more than 300 people were killed when Mohajirs and native Sindhis clashed in Karachi and Hyderabad late in May and early in June.

and sporadic fighting between the two groups has continued for years, taking 1,500 lives since 1986.

President Ghulam Ishaq Khan cited the violence in Sind province, of which Karachi is the capital, as one of the reasons for his dismissal of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Aug. 6.