For the second time in two years, rioters ransacked a KFC in Karachi Pakistan. According to an AP reporter, rioters were neither protesting the high cholesterol content nor its nefarious role as an agent of globalization and spearhead of Western hegemony. Rather, it seems like opportunism borne of an ordinary power outage:

Hundreds of residents angered over a 16-hour power outage rioted in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi overnight, ransacking a KFC restaurant and two banks, police said Thursday. At least six people were hurt as youths burned tires on roads, stoned passing cars and caused extensive damage to commercial property in the south of the city during two hours of unrest. Police used tear gas to control the mob, and arrested 13 people, police officer Azad Khan said. The riot ended when power was restored early Thursday. The KFC restaurant near an upscale district of the city was badly damaged, and rioters made off with the cash register. Two guards at the restaurant were among those injured in the violence.

The last time something like his happened was in May 2005. Then, there was a serious issue motivating it. But again, there was no clear connection to KFC:

Six people were killed when a KFC restaurant was set on fire by a mob angry about a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi, bringing the overall death toll to 11, police said Tuesday. The fast-food chicken restaurant was targeted in overnight rioting after Monday's attack on the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah mosque, where three assailants clashed with police before exploding a bomb in violence that killed two attackers, two policemen and one worshipper and wounded 26 others. Sunni Muslim extremists were suspected in the mosque attack, and it was unclear why KFC was targeted in retaliatory rioting, along with arson attacks on vehicles, shops, three bank branches and three gas stations. However, the restaurant is heavily associated with the U.S. and rioters in Pakistan typically attack symbols of Washington while on a rampage.

The common thread between these two attacks may be that the KFC was in an "upscale" neighborhood and thus, one "heavily associated with the US." And if in the minds of Pakistanis affluence is associated with America, that ought to be considered a good thing. That having been said, Karachi may be the only place on Earth where something from Kentucky is taken as a symbol of Washington D.C.