Pakistani students at a demonstration in Karachi. (AFP)

Karachi, April 12 (PTI): Angry rioters rampaged through Karachi forcing the police to fire teargas to disperse them a day after 57 people were killed in twin suicide attacks on a Sunni gathering.

The Sunni Tehrik party, a religious party which had organised yesterday’s meeting to celebrate Prophet Mohammad’s birth anniversary, today gave the government 48 hours to “uncover the conspiracy” behind the attack and publicly hang the culprits.

The party, which lost its top leaders in the bombings, demanded an investigation into the attacks by the army intelligence service or the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

A group of youths, apparently linked to the Tehrik party, rampaged through Karachi, setting a bus and two cars on fire and smashing shop windows before the police brought the situation under control, reports here said. Security forces blocked main roads and shut down schools throughout the city.

Last night, angry mobs set fire to a few petrol stations and vehicles.Today, the city wore a deserted look after local Islamic groups called a strike in protest over the bombings. Most traders observed the strike and shops and petrol stations were shut.

Fifty-seven people were killed and over 200 injured in the blast carried out possibly by two suicide bombers sitting near the stage at the gathering in Nishtar Park, central Karachi.

“We lost our 10 top leaders in the blast... The provincial government failed to provide adequate security cover despite repeated threats to our leadership,” Shahid Ghori, a member of the Sunni Tehrik party, said.

“We are issuing a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to uncover the conspiracy and publicly hang those involved. The government should not under-estimate our strength.”

He also said that “we will not accept any investigations by the local administration. We want that army intelligence or should probe the incident.”

Those killed in the blast included Sunni Tehrik leader, Abbas Qadri, and the leader of Tehrik Ahle Sunaat, Haji Hanif Billo, and his son.