Pak continues to burn as riots claim 24 lives-Pakistan-World-The Times of India

KARACHI: Protests erupted in Pakistan for a second day on Friday after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the violence was worst in her home province in the south. Officials said 24 people, including four policemen, had died since former prime minister Bhutto was murdered on Thursday in a gun and bomb attack after an election rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

The violence intensified on Friday into some of the worst political disturbances in years in nuclear-armed Pakistan. All but one of the dead were killed in Sindh province in the south, Bhutto's home province and her main base of support. Hyderabad city was particularly hard hit where troops were called out to restore calm after an order to police to shoot violent protesters on sight failed to quell the trouble.

The army has been called in to help keep order in several cities in southern Pakistan. The government of Sindh province has requested the army's help "to control the law and order situation" in the cities of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawab Shah and Gotki, said Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram, the province's home secretary.

Earlier, army spokesman Waheed Arshad said troops were put on alert in four cities in Sindh as a precaution but were not yet patrolling the streets. Officials had said they feared the disturbances would intensify after Bhutto's funeral at her family's ancestral home in the province on Friday afternoon.

In Hyderabad, police and witnesses said protesters had set fire to about 25 banks, 100 vehicles and foreign fast-food outlets. Several train coaches were also torched.