By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistani riot police fired teargas and used baton charges to hold off hundreds of enraged Shia protesters who blocked a main highway in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday.

The protesters were demanding the release of their political leaders, arrested for their alleged involvement in a fresh wave of sectarian killings in the city.

Over the past three days the police arrested around 100 suspects belonging to hardline Shia and Sunni groups, including former senator Syed Faisal Reza Abidi, for their alleged involvement in violence that killed 11 people in Karachi last week.

A Sunni-majority country, Pakistan has a long history of sectarian violence, with thousands of Shias and Sunnis having been killed in tit-for-tat violence over the last three decades.

Shia Muslims account for roughly 10 percent of Pakistan’s total population of some 200 million.