Violence in Karachi, Pakistan's combustible seaside metropolis

Paramilitary soldiers cordon off an area following attacks in a market on 19 October. At least 11 people were killed Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images

Vehicles and cyclists on the road in Lyari, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Karachi and a stronghold of the ruling Pakistan People's Party. The neighbourhood has been dominated by criminal gangs, and one of its most notorious residents, a crime boss named Rehman Dakait, was killed during a shoot-out with police in 2009 Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Pakistani volunteers carry an unidentified bullet-ridden body to a hospital in Karachi, following targeted killing incidents. Political violence in Pakistan's biggest city claimed another five lives on October 19, bringing to nearly 40 the toll from a series of killings surrounding a by-election Photograph: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images

A deserted auto parts shop in Karachi's Shershah kabari (scrap) market, where a trader was killed during a rampage by suspected criminal gang members on 19 October, that killed 12 people Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

A stray dog roams the deserted alleyways of Shershah kabari market, a giant scrap market in Karachi, where suspected criminal gunmen killed 12 people on October 19. The killings were the climax of a week of ethnic, criminal and political violence that claimed 80 lives in five days Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

The auto parts shop in Karachi's Shershah kabari market where Muhammad Anis and his sons, Zubair and Umair, were killed during a rampage by suspected criminal gang members on 19 October Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Right to left: sisters Hina Muhammad, 26, and Sameen, 23 and Sana, 20, mourn the death of their father, Anis Anwer, and two brothers, Zubair and Umair, who were killed in an attack on the Shershah kabari market Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Karachi police officers show weapons and an explosives vest recovered from a 14-year-old Taliban suicide bomber arrested in the city earlier this week Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Women offer prayers at a rally held by the Lyari Aman Committee, a self-styled community organisation that critics say has links to organised crime groups, but which is popular among many Lyari residents because it offers protection from encroachment by other ethnic groups in the city Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Women offer prayers at a rally held by the Lyari Aman Committee Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Senior Karachi police officer Omar Shahid Hamid holds a press conference to announce the capture of a 14-year-old suicide bomber along with weapons and an explosive vest Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Men walking in Lyari, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Karachi and a stronghold of the ruling Pakistan People's Party Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Down an alleyway in Karachi's Lyari neighbourhood, Jan Bibi holds a photo of her 30-year-old son Rehman Baloch, who was abducted, tortured and killed on October 19, apparently in retaliation for an attack on the Kabari scrap market Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Baloch nationalist slogans in Lyari Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

A poster commemorating Anwar Bhai Jan, a slain Baloch community leader in the deserted Sher Shah market, where 12 people were killed in gang violence by suspected Baloch criminals seeking to extort money from traders in the sprawling scrap market. Jan, a Baloch community leader, was killed in Karachi street violence in 2004 Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

Mustafa Kamal, a former Karachi mayor and senior official with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, gives an interview outside 'Nine Zero', the party's heavily guarded headquarters in the city's Azizabad neighbourhood. On the wall behind him is a portrait of Altaf Hussain, the party's leader who has been living in exile in London since 1992. The party was recently plunged into turmoil with the murder of Imran Farooq, a senior party official, on the street near his London home Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier stands guard on a street in Karachi. Pakistan will recruit 3,000 extra police in a bid to stem repeated outbreaks of violence in its largest city Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images