INTERVIEW-Pakistan's Karachi the Taliban revenue engine - mayor

[clear eye]

Source: Reuters

By Faisal Aziz and Robert Birsel

KARACHI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub of Karachi is the revenue engine of the Taliban who pose a threat to the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan from city no-go areas, Karachi's mayor said on Wednesday.

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The city, which has long suffered a reputation for political violence and crime, still had no-go areas where the authorities including the police dared not venture, he said.

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But he said militants were financing their war in the northwest of the country and in Afghanistan through kidnapping and drug trafficking through Karachi.

"People are being kidnapped here in Karachi and the ransom is taken in Waziristan," he said, referring to a northwestern ethnic Pashtun region where the army has been battling militants since October.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSISL5193

[Flaneur]

1. Well, onward to Karachi, then!

And don't forget Quetta.