Except a few stray incidents of firing in the air, burning of tyres, pelting of stones on solitary vehicles plying on roads, open shops and buildings and burning down of petrol pumps, no untoward incident was reported from any of the five districts of Karachi.
The affected areas included Baldia Town, Hub River Road (RCD Highway), Banaras Chowk, Site area, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Sohrab Goth, Landhi and Pipri. People in these areas resorted to angry protest and erected obstacles to obstruct traffic.
As a result of anger that people have due to the terrorist acts some clashes were also reported with the law enforcement personnel but, only at Benaras Chowk where residents tried to create law and order situation and clashed with police. There were also reports of sporadic cases of hide and seek in Pirabad and Pathan Colony between police and local population late in the evening.
Police used tear gas and mild lathi charge to disperse the agitating crowd. Eighteen people were reported slightly injured. Some of them were taken to Abbasi Shaheed hospital for first aid.
The effect of the strike on commercial and economic life of the city could be evaluated from the entire closure of business activities. Roads throughout the city wore a deserted look. On some big roads boys were seen playing cricket. Very few private cars, motorcycles, rickshaws or taxis were seen plying on the roads.
Offices and commercial centres in Saddar, Electronic Market, Boulton Market, Tariq Road, shopping malls in Clifton and Defence areas remain closed. All markets in Purana Golimar, Gulbahar, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Haidri Market, North Karachi, Malir, Quaidabad, Korangi Town and Malir were also shutdown.
In district South, Shershah, Lyari and Khadda people responded to the calls from Pakistan People's Party to observe black day in protest against acts of terrorism in Karachi. Similar reports were also received from Malir.
Industrial areas in North Karachi, Site, Korangi and Landhi were closed. A few units, which had tried to open their factories, were forced to close down.
However, some units managed to continue production work as they had made special arrangements to bring their staff and workers while units' owners did not let the Thursday shifts to go home to keep their units running.
Some government offices, which were open, could not function because of thin attendance.
Petrol pumps remained closed for fear of mob attacks.
Head offices of banks were open but their branches did not function.
People arriving at airports and railway stations faced great problems to reach their destinations owning to non-availability of transport. The very few rickshaw and taxi drivers who were at airports charged heavy fares from the passengers.
According to railway sources, almost all trains leaving Karachi had very small number of passengers.
Super Highway and National Highway were closed and the traffic between Hyderabad and Karachi remained suspended.
The strike call also hit the working of hospitals as doctors and other staff failed to reach their work places. Some major surgical operations were cancelled.
Daily wage earners were the worst hit people, as they had to go without earning for the day.
To deal with law and order situation more than 4000 policemen and 2000 rangers were posted at sensitive areas.
Volunteers, along with law enforcement personnel, were seen guarding various Imambargahs and mosques.
Police arrested activists of political and religious parties from Lyari, Saeedabad and Banaras Colony to control violence when they came out of mosques after Friday prayers and raised slogans against the inability of Sindh Government to check acts of terrorism in Karachi.
Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammed Mahar has set up a peace committee headed by provincial minister for religious affairs, Irfan Gul Magsi to work for establishing peace, harmony and understanding between different sects.
The committee will have additional chief secretary home, IGP Sindh, ulema and religious scholars, DCOs, and RPOs as members.
Similar committees will also be set up at district level. The District Committees will be headed by DCOs with ulema, mashaikh, notables and DPOs as members.
The Chief Minister directed that District and Tehsil level Peace Committees should also be formed within a month's time.
AFP ADDS: The Inspector General Police (IGP), Sindh, Syed Kamal Shah, and Director General of Rangers Major General Javed Zia visited various areas of the city and reviewed the law and order situation.
During the visit, the IGP reviewed security arrangements taken by police He spoke to police officials and personnel deployed at Markazi Imambargahs, mosques, sensitive installations and principal government and semi-government buildings and issued necessary instructions.
"A bakery worker was shot dead when he resisted five or six unidentified armed people forcing the shops to shut down," local police official Shanawaz Ali told AFP.
The man, identified as Muhammad Faisal, worked at a bakery in Layari area, Ali said.
Six civilians and four officers were injured when a mob attacked a police station in another area earlier.
Police opened fire and lobbed tear-gas shells to disperse the crowd of some 150 people as they attacked the station in Pirabad and ransacked the premises.
"We fired tear-gas and opened fire in self defence," Pirabad police inspector Dilip Kumar said.
Hospital officials confirmed six civilians had suffered bullet wounds but said they were out of danger.
The injured policemen were hit with stones and bricks, senior police official Imran Shaukat told AFP, adding that the mob had also damaged two police vans and three cars.