‘Ethnic, political’ killings leave 18 dead in Karachi
By Imran Ayub
Thursday, 20 May, 2010
KARACHI, May 19: At least 18 people, including a man and his four-year-old son, lost their lives in a renewed wave of ethnic, political killings across the city on Wednesday, officials and political parties said.
The targeted killings staged a comeback just a day after the coalition parties reiterated their pledge to work together for the peace and prosperity of the province.
However, the city police chief told Dawn that all security measures would remain fruitless unless political parties cleansed their ranks from criminal elements.
The fresh wave of attacks during which 13 people were also wounded was sparked off by the killing of a senior member of the Awami National Party (ANP) Nabi Khan in Shah Faisal Colony in the early hours of Wednesday.
Just a few hours later, unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on youths standing at a shop in Shah Faisal Colony No 4. Two of them, Hanif and Imran, were wounded in the attack. They were taken to the Jinnah Postgrduate Medical Centre, where Hanif, said to be a Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker, died during treatment.
In the middle of the night, an ANP office in the Dhoraji area was torched in an arson attack.
In North Karachi, an ANP worker was killed on his way home within the remit of the Sir Syed police station. “Thirty-two-year-old Abdul Hakeem was targeted near UP Morr,” said an official at the Sir Syed police station. “He was pushing his Gola Ganda cart on his way when two men riding a motorbike came close to him and fired multiple shots. He died on the spot and the riders escaped.”
Later in the morning, another ANP worker was targeted in Orangi Town. Bacha Zada Khan, 37, was heading to work when armed motorcyclists shot him dead near Data Nagar within the remit of the Orangi Town police station.
Mohammad Ameen Mehsood, an ANP activist associated with the Landhi zone of the party’s organisational structure, was targeted near his home. “He was sitting with his friends near his home in Majeed Colony when two men separated him from them and fired two shots at him,” said an official at the Quaidabad police station. “He died on the spot and the armed men escaped from the scene. The body was later shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.”
Dozens of enraged ANP workers turned up with the body of Nabi Khan outside the Governor’s House to protest against the killings of several party workers and burning of its Dhoraji office.
As the charged protesters were returning, a jeep carrying six workers of the ANP Mehmoodabad area was ambushed near Lucky Star in Saddar.
“Witnesses said that three men riding two motorbikes targeted the jeep,” said an official at the Saddar police station. “As a result, Abdul Rahman, 33, died on the spot and four people — Qamar Shah, Abrar, Imran and Kashif — were wounded, who were shifted to the JPMC for treatment.”
An ANP spokesman claimed that Abdul Rahman was an active member of the party’s Manzoor Colony unit and the wounded were party members who had staged the protest demonstration outside the Governor’s House.
Another tragic incident was witnessed in Shamsi Housing Society where a worker of the Afaq Ahmed-led faction of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqiqi) was targeted with his minor son in his lap.
“The victim identified as Haider Ali, 31, was sitting at an auto-mechanic shop with his four-year-old son Hamza in his lap,” said Sub-Inspector Khalid Nadim, SHO of the Al-Falah police station. “All of a sudden two motorcyclists pulled up. Holding his son in his arms, the victim tried to run inside the shop as he saw the bikers, who opened fire on Haider, Hamza and mechanic Nadim.” The three wounded passed away one after the other during treatment at the JPMC, the sub-inspector said. He said he was unsure about the motive behind the killing.
However, a spokesman for the Afaq Ahmed-led faction of the MQM-H claimed that Haider was the finance secretary of the party’s Unit-105 in Shah Faisal Colony.
The situation remained unstoppable for the authorities as a few minutes after sunset some armed men gunned down Niaz Muhammad near the Civil Hospital Karachi. The 25-year-old victim was a resident of SITE and returning home after meeting a relative admitted at the hospital.
In Korangi No 6, Fazal Muhammad, 27, son of Ghulam Muhammad, was killed in firing almost half an hour before 28-year-old Moosa Khan was gunned down when he was sitting with three other friends. The area police said that they were all roadside vendors.
“Moosa Khan died on the spot and his friends Ajab Khan, Kareem Khan and Nawaz Khan suffered bullet wounds when three men riding a motorbike opened indiscriminate firing. All the three wounded were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment,” said an official at the Sharifabad police station.
Another young man was gunned down in North Karachi. A spokesman for the Jamaat-e-Islami claimed that the victim was a member of the party.
An official at the Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police station said that the victim, in his mid 20s, was targeted near Qalandria Chowk. “This victim — identified as Ajab Khan and wearing shalwar kameez — was found dead on the main road,” said the official.
Though he remained unable to explain the motive behind the incident, the JI spokesman said that Ajab Khan was killed because he was a JI worker associated with the Mustafabad unit of the party.
In Model Colony, two young men were killed in separate incidents of firing.
The police suspected that both were killed one by one by the same motorcyclists. “The firing incident occurred within a span of 25 minutes,” said Sub-Inspector Abid Hussain Shah, the SHO of the Model Colony police station. He said: “In the first incident, a 26-year-old Afghan national, Muhammad Nabi, was killed in Gol Ground. An unidientified man, in his mid 20s, was later targeted near Mehran Depot, a bus stop close to a Rangers facility.”
A five-year-old boy was killed and a young man seriously injured when two men riding on a motorbike fired indiscriminately on a group of people sitting along the main road near Chawal Godam in Landhi.
An official at the Landhi police station said that the boy, Hamza, received fatal wound in the chest and died on the spot. “A man in his early 30s was seriously wounded in the firing. He has been shifted to the JPMC for treatment but remained unidentified,” added the official.
A police constable posted at Pirabad police station was shot dead and his colleague serious wounded in an attack when the two were patrolling near Banaras Chowk, officials said.
They said that Saleem Rana received three bullet wounds and died during the treatment at the hospital. The other constable, Wahid Bukhsh, was shifted to a private hospital for the surgery.
‘Lack of political will’
The police high-ups said they found all security measures fruitless unless the political leadership showed willingness and rose to the occasion.
“Unfortunately we have not seen the desired level of commitment from the political leadership to combat the menace of the targeted killings,” Waseem Ahmed, capital city police officer (CCPO), told Dawn. “The killings are mostly ethnically or politically motivated and we need support from the political parties to put a permanent stop to such incidents.”
He said the police had arrested a number of suspects who in joint interrogation of different agencies had admitted their association with different political parties. “But we are not sitting idle and are taking all due initiatives to tackle the situation. However, in the long run we need support and cooperation from the political leadership, as they hold the key to the solution,” the CCPO said.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/ethnic%2C-political-killings-leave-18-dead-in-karachi-050
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