1 Six people were shot to death Thursday in Karachi's latest spasm of violence, and a top police officer acknowledged he lacked sufficient staff to deal with the current fighting.
2 'Every third man in Karachi is armed,' said Abdul Sattar Sheikh, the senior superintendent of police in Karachi Central, the hardest-hit district.
3 Nearly 60 people have been killed in the past week, most in mass shootings that appeared highly organized.
4 'We are not equipped to counter organized terrorism,' the superintendent said.
5 Karachi has been plagued by political violence since 1986, and the past week's killings have marked one of the worst outbursts during that period.
6 'People are scared to go out of their houses,' said Quaid Ahmed, a resident of Karachi Central.
7 In the worst attack Thursday, gunmen killed three people and critically wounded another when they fired on a house in Karachi Central, police said.
8 The victims were believed to be activists in the Mohajir Quami Movement, an opposition group that has split into two rival factions.
9 The feud between the two groups has accounted for much of the violence that has claimed about 1,000 lives since the beginning of 1994.
10 Also, a policeman was gunned down in Karachi Central. Police have become frequent targets for attacks, and more than 70 have been killed in the past year.
11 Though it is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, attendance at some mosques has declined because of the shootings, which included a mass killing Sunday at a mosque.
12 Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has vowed to stop the bloodshed, but police engender little public faith and rarely make arrests.
13 Ms. Bhutto withdrew the army from Karachi at the end of November.

Karachi has been plagued by political violence since 1986 , and the past week ' s killings have marked one of the worst outbursts during that period .
political violence since 1986 ,
Why is there political violence in this region?