By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: A woman has been killed and 94 people injured, among them 17 children, after celebratory gunfire swept across Karachi as Pakistan marked its 79th Independence Day on Friday, in the latest instance of a practice that has claimed lives in the city year after year despite repeated warnings from the authorities.
Rescue officials said the injury toll climbed through the night as casualties were brought into hospitals across the city. A spokesperson for the Edhi Foundation confirmed that the 94 wounded included 10 women, 17 children and 59 men. The woman who died was caught in the same wave of celebratory firing, according to rescue sources.
The injured were taken to three major hospitals: Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Civil Hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Hospital officials said Abbasi Shaheed received 24 patients overnight, including one woman, four children and 19 men. Jinnah Hospital treated 35 people, among them four women, three children and 28 men, while Civil Hospital’s trauma centre took in 26 patients, including 10 children, four women and 12 men.
Firing was reported across large parts of the city, among them Lyari, Saddar, Korangi, Malir, Azizabad, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Gulbahar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Orangi Town, Jamshed Quarters and Defence.
Police said 30 suspects had been arrested in connection with aerial firing across the city’s eastern, western and central districts, with arrests made in Hyderi Market, Bilal Colony, Liaquatabad, New Karachi, Taimuria, Azizabad, Joharabad and Gulbahar, as well as within the jurisdictions of Khwaja Ajmer Nagri, Samanabad, Rizvia Society and Sir Syed police stations. Officers said a range of weapons had been recovered from those detained.
In Gulshan-e-Iqbal, a security guard was arrested over alleged involvement in aerial firing and a weapon recovered from him. Two further suspects were arrested in Orangi Town and Iqbal Market, the SSP West said.
In a separate and unrelated incident, a woman was killed at a hotel in Paposh Nagar’s Sarafa Bazaar when a pistol allegedly discharged accidentally. Police said the weapon had been left on a table with a round still in the chamber and discharged as it was being handled, striking the woman, who was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she later died. The accused, named by police as Imran and identified as the woman’s cousin, was arrested and a 9mm pistol recovered from him.
Authorities have repeatedly cautioned residents against firing weapons into the air during celebrations, pointing out that bullets fired skyward fall back to earth and can seriously injure or kill people below. The warnings have done little to halt the practice. Karachi recorded three deaths and at least 75 injuries in similar incidents during last year’s Independence Day, while roughly 95 people were hurt in aerial firing the year before that.
A national holiday marked by ceremony and a new war memorial
The casualties in Karachi came as the rest of the country marked Independence Day with the ceremonial trappings that traditionally accompany the holiday. The day opened with a 31-gun salute in Islamabad and 21-gun salutes in the provincial capitals, while special prayers were offered in mosques nationwide, following Fajr prayers, for the country’s peace, unity and prosperity.
President Asif Ali Zardari hoisted the national flag at a ceremony in the federal capital, with similar events held at provincial, divisional and district headquarters across the country. Streets, markets and public buildings had been strung with national flags, bunting and coloured lights in the days beforehand, and cities held seminars, exhibitions and cultural events through the day in tribute to the country’s founding generation.
The military’s public relations wing, ISPR, released a new national song, “Mera Pyara Watan Pakistan”, to mark the occasion.
On the eve of the anniversary, Zardari was joined by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief and chief of defence forces, to inaugurate the Yadgar-e-Fatah monument in Islamabad. The monument commemorates what Pakistani officials have described as the country’s victory over India in a brief but intense conflict in May 2025.
Islamabad says the fighting began on 6 and 7 May, after India levelled what Pakistani authorities called baseless allegations linking Pakistan to an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, and launched strikes on Pakistani territory. Pakistan says its forces responded in full, and its officials have credited the military with downing eight Indian fighter jets — among them French-built Rafales — along with dozens of drones, over the course of the confrontation. India has not endorsed these figures, and the two nuclear-armed neighbours have offered starkly differing accounts of both the trigger for the fighting and its course. The clash, the most serious between the two countries in years, ran for more than 80 hours before a ceasefire took hold on 10 May following intervention from the United States.
Independence Day celebrations extended to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan-administered territory bordering Indian-administered Kashmir, where the day began with a 21-gun salute in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad. Special prayers were offered there for the territory’s eventual union with the rest of Kashmir, and the region’s prime minister laid a floral wreath at the Shuhada monument to the territory’s war dead.
Armed forces pledge to defend sovereignty
In a joint statement issued through ISPR, the chiefs of Pakistan’s army, navy and air force extended their congratulations to the country on the anniversary and reaffirmed their commitment to defending its sovereignty and constitutional order.
The message, issued on behalf of the armed forces by Field Marshal Asim Munir, Admiral Naveed Ashraf and Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, paid tribute to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding leader, and to those whose sacrifices led to the country’s creation in 1947. Their vision, the statement said, continued to guide the nation.
The military leadership also paid tribute to Pakistan’s war dead, veterans and law enforcement personnel, saying their service had strengthened the country’s resilience and helped preserve its independence and security. The statement pledged that the armed forces would continue to defend Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “against all threats” while upholding the constitution.
“As guardians of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Armed Forces reaffirm their unwavering resolve to defend the motherland against all threats, uphold the Constitution and discharge the sacred trust reposed in them by the people of Pakistan,” the statement said.
The military chiefs called for national unity, urging citizens to recommit to the principles of “Faith, Unity and Discipline” and to work towards what they described as a secure, stable and prosperous Pakistan. The statement closed with the words: “Pakistan Armed Forces Zindabad! Pakistan Hamesha Paindabad!”
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