KARACHI: An Afghanistan-bound oil tanker turned over at the Native Jetty bridge early Sunday morning.

The tanker was carrying oil for Nato troops in Kabul, police officials said. According to the police, the incident was the driver’s fault. “It seems like the driver was sleepy and so he could not control the vehicle when he was turning,” said SHO Chaudhry Irshad.

Because the tanker overturned, the police had to block Native Jetty road leading to Sultanabad and Clifton.

The vehicle, bearing the licence plate No. PRZ-5859, was carrying 24,000 litres of oil, according to the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association.

At the time of the incident, four to five police officials were standing in the area, described SHO Irshad. The oil spilled from the top of the Native Jetty bridge to Bahria School located at around 500 metres away from the site.

Witnesses and people living in the neighbouring areas started scrambling to collect and store the oil in cans and drums or whatever utensils they could find. Some even left the area in their cars and came back with larger vessels to collect the spilled oil. Children and women also joined in. Most of them soon left with the oil on their donkey carts and bicycles.

“Even if we don’t take it home, it is useless for the owners. So we should take advantage of it,” Rabia, 35, told The Express Tribune.

“My brother has a bike and so he can use it,” said 16-year-old Irfan Khan. “It will not only be helpful for us but also for the police. They cannot clean the road alone,” he added. When the rescue workers and police officials reached, the people had completed a major part of their job – they had cleaned the mess.

The police then cordoned off the area to avoid accidents. The road was opened after three hours of rescue work.

The police arrested the driver, Musharraf, son of Mukarram, and lodged FIR No. 593 /10 against him.

Dr Ghulam Akbar, WWF Pakistan director, said, “The good thing is that the oil did not enter the water that flows nearby [in China Creek]. It would have been really disastrous then.” He said that the oil would have spread to the nearby areas through vehicles that passed through the site and could cause a major fire. “The neighbourhood will suffer from the oil fumes for the next few days,” said Dr Akbar.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2010.

KARACHI: The principal’s office of the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC) has been accused by one of its former students of a financial scam worth Rs185,000 and impersonating Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on the pretext of a reward for topping the exams.

Sidra Shakeel, currently working as a house officer at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, received a phone call from the office of the principal of the institution from where she had graduated with a distinction in medicine. “Since you have topped [the exams from] the college, the Sindh chief minister is going to award you a gold medal,” she was informed over the telephone by Farman, the personal assistant to the KMDC principal.

She was asked to collect from the college a letter so that she could enter the Chief Minister House along with her parents for a ceremony.

Sidra had passed her MBBS exams in 2010 with a distinction. She beat all the students from her own college and came second among the students of all medical colleges affiliated with the University of Karachi.

“My daughter was really excited after receiving the call,” said her mother, Dr Talat Shakeel while talking to The Express Tribune at her flat in Askari IV.

Sidra’s mother also talked to the clerk and he repeated the entire details to her as well. “He also gave me a number and said that it was Qamar Zaman Kaira’s, who wanted to talk to all the [successful] children,” said Dr Talat. Sidrah’s father is Colonel Shakeel, a serving army officer, but he was not at home when the mother and daughter received the ‘good news’.

They rang the number for ‘Qamar Zaman Kaira’ who congratulated them and then offered them a lucrative package.

“The ‘Kaira’ informed us that the government had announced a prize package for the two kids who had topped the MBBS and BDS [exams],” said Sidra’s mother, who had spoken with the man. According to the package, the student could choose between a Cultus car for Rs172,000 or a Vitz car for Rs185,000.

“We got really excited after being offered the package,” said Dr Talat, who herself is an MBBS doctor, but currently a homemaker. But the problem was that they did not have enough money for either package, which they were told they had to avail before the ceremony at the CM House.

“I told ‘Qamar Zaman Kaira’ that we did not have enough money but I could pay just Rs70,000,” she said. “It was an attractive offer and after all we have received an official call from the office of the principal of the Karachi Medical and Dental College.”

Sidra and her mother were so excited that they collected all the cash that they had and headed to the nearby bank to deposit the money in the account and they did not even bother to give it a second thought.

When they reached the bank, we received a call from the man who had been introduced by the college staff as Qamar Zaman Kaira. “He requested us to hand the cell phone to the bank manager [so he could speak to him].”

In the bank

The man on the phone asked the bank manager to deposit the money in Account No. 52303608096901 owned by someone called Waseem Hussain.

“I asked the manager whether he knew it was Kaira,” recounted Dr Talat. The manager retorted, “How am I supposed to know that he is Kaira? You gave me the cell phone and asked me to talk to ‘Kaira’.”

At this point, Dr Talat and Sidra grew suspicious and asked a friend of her husband to inquire whether the man was actually Kaira or not.

A relative and family friend, Colonel Tahir, who had served as an SSP in the police department, tried ‘Kaira’s’ number many times but no one picked up. “They had called us over 30 times within a few hours [pressing us to deposit the money],” said Dr Talat. “But they did not receive Tahir’s calls.”

Dr Talat and Sidra decided to pay the college a visit before depositing the money.

At the college

On their way to the college, Colonel Tahir found out through his sources that the person who was posing as Qamar Zaman Kaira was someone from Lahore.

When they reached the office, PA Farman handed them a letter of appreciation signed by the principal.

“I kept on asking why he had fooled us and why he was trying to dodge us by giving a fake number,” said Dr Talat. “I started talking rudely to him.”

Sidra and the other girl Batool, who had topped the dental college or BDS exams, stood by silently. PA Farman maintained that the principal had given him the number.

Later, the family discovered that there was no ceremony planned at CM House. “We were not allowed to talk to the principal and his PA kept saying that he had nothing to do with the CM House invitation and the principal had asked him to do everything,” Dr Talat said.

The colonel and his family believe that the college’s administration had tried to fool them into giving up their money.

For his part, Farman assured the family that had they deposited the money in the fake account, “the college would have reimbursed it”.

The Express Tribune made several attempts to contact KMDC Principal Prof Waqar H Kazmi on Thursday, first via text message with requests for his comment on the situation and then repeated phone calls, which he did not receive.

An appointment was set up at the college for this reporter to meet him Friday morning, but the principal refused to comment or meet.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.

KARACHI: Nearly a week after the target killings came to a halt, the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior Abdul Qadir Patel said Karachi’s police was fully prepared to rein in the menace. The police, however, were not that sure.

The five-member committee including Patel, Roshan Junejo of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Waseem Akhtar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party’s (ANP) Bushra Rehman and Mehmood Wardag of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) gave a five-minute press briefing at the central police office on Wednesday.

“Today we visited the Rangers Headquarters and the central police office and we were briefed about the recent incidents of violence in the city,” Patel said, adding, “We are satisfied with the preparations and actions taken by the police.”

He parried questions about when the police or Rangers would start an operation against the target killers. “They will take action wherever they think it is necessary,” he said.

Patel assured that there would be no political interference in the police’s action against criminals. “We have assured the police high-ups of no political interference.”

But the police have a different story to tell.

Officials say they are frustrated as they know 90 per cent of the criminals involved in target killings but cannot do much because of “political influence”. “Everyone blames us for the ongoing violence in the city but the reality is that we are helpless ourselves,” a senior police official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity.

The police said that members of the three coalition parties in the federal government are involved in these killings and that is the reason why their hands were tied. “We never received instructions from the government to take stern action against these elements. We are just watching everything happen like common people,” he went on to say, adding, “Everything is decided in Governor and Chief Minister House.”

The official claimed that if the police and law-enforcement agencies were allowed to work freely, they could curb target killings within two days. “I am more than hundred per cent sure we can crush the criminals.”

The Sindh police works under the supervision of the provincial home department and that is where they get their instructions from. “Whenever a government is sincere about taking any action, they ask the police to do something. However, I have not seen any such thing during the last one year here,” said the official.

Policemen are killed either during investigations of these target killing cases or just because they are affiliated with the [investigation] department, he said. Around 50 policemen have lost their lives so far.

He said all the three major political parties are fighting for control of the resources of Karachi and that is inflaming the violence.

Another problem is a lack of witnesses to take on the criminals. According to a district and sessions judge, the matter is really sensitive. “Yes, it is true that judges are also threatened … But at large, no one comes forward as a witness and the judge has no other option but to release the criminals,” he explained.

Bad public image

Apart from dealing with reticent politicians, the police and intelligence agencies also have to deal with a severe trust deficit – a byproduct or backlash from their own performance. “People are not ready to cooperate with us,” a Crime Investigation Department (CID) senior officer said. “You arrest them and investigate the case and produce them in the courts. No one comes forward to give evidence against them and then the judiciary releases them,” he said, adding, “When the criminals are released, they first kill the police officials who are involved in the investigations.”

Trouble in Lyari

Intelligence and police officials believe that the turf war in Lyari has a political face – two major coalition partners in the Sindh government are involved in indirect fighting there. Lyari is a stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party and before the 2008 general elections, the officials believe another major political party had rooted itself in the drug-addled neighbourhood.

When the present government set-up was organised, one political party started kicking the other out of the area and undoing its efforts. That has led to the clashes. “Lyari gangsters are not a big threat. The number of criminals is very small and we can easily take them down. But, again, the problem is political,” the police official claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2010.

KARACHI: The anti extremism cell of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has claimed to have arrested two alleged militants in possession of not just suicide jackets but a teenaged suicide bomber.

On the directives of Additional IG CID Sindh Saud Ahmed, the anti-extremism team, led by SSP Umar Shahid and SSP Chaudhry Aslam, conducted an operation in Sohrab Goth after an alleged encounter on Monday.

They managed to arrest two suspected militants, Sher Rehman and Zainullah alias Bilal alias Zank. The police also seized a 22-kilogramme suicide jacket, Kalashnikov, TT pistol and three hand-grenades from their possession. They also found 16-year-old Muhammad Salaam in the suspects’ possession.

“We were working on this case with the help of a federal intelligence agency,” said SSP Umar Shahid of the CID, while addressing a news conference at Police Headquarters Garden on Monday.

According to Shahid, Salaam was in the process of being prepared for a suicide attack. He was brainwashed to such an extent that the agencies believed he would have carried out an attack within a month or so, he added.

Meanwhile, SSP Chaudhry Aslam stressed that they are unaware of the target of this attacker. “Initial investigations suggest that he was going to blow himself up somewhere in the northern parts of the country,” he went on to say.

Recalling the information revealed by the teenaged militant, the officials said that he was being manipulated by the militants, who threatened to kill his family unless he agreed to kill people.

Salaam was a student of class nine and a resident of Sohrab Goth. He met Sher Rehman at a mosque in the area. Sher Rehman threatened to slaughter Salaam if he refused to carry out a suicide attack. After being brainwashed for some time, Salaam believed that he was ready to go to South Waziristan for an attack.

However, since his recovery by the police, he said he was relieved and felt secured. “Salaam and his family are both safe,” added SSP Shahid.

Suspect Sher Rehman is allegedly a close associate of the leadership of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, namely Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain. He is also responsible for recruiting children to train them to carry out attacks.

SSP Shahid added that the suspects also revealed during the interrogation that they have also slaughtered one of their accomplices, Shahid alias Raangar, at Sohrab Goth. He was suspected of being involved with the agencies.

“In order to deter more spies, they slaughtered a man in Sohrab Goth to set an example for others,” said SSP Shahid, adding that Sher Rehman was also accused of attempting to kill a Shia doctor, Nadir, in Quetta.

SSP Shahid further said that suspects Umer Farooq, Gul Zareen and Zahir Shah managed to escape during the operation.

Two people gunned down

Target killings claimed two more lives on Monday. Twenty eight-year-old Sohail, a motorcycle mechanic, was gunned down by two armed men near the Northern Bypass in Sector 36-A, Surjani Town. His body was moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities. SHO Yar Mohammad Rind said the Balochi victim had no political affiliations but his brother, Faisal, is a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. No case was registered till the filing of this report.

Separately, the police found a six-day-old body in North Karachi. According to the police officials, the victim’s identity could not be ascertained.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2010.

KARACHI: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials are in the city to give anti-terrorism training to our very own Sindh police.

A few months ago, the Sindh government had requested the United States consul general in Karachi to help train the local police in modern counterterrorist mechanisms, including locating and defusing bombs. On this request, the legal attaché in the US Embassy, Islamabad, assured the provincial government that they would do the needful and delegated the task to the FBI.

The men in black arrived in Karachi on Sunday, according to officials, and met with IG Sindh Salahuddin Babar Khattak, CCPO Karachi Fayyaz Leghari and others.

The FBI team will visit the police training centres in Saeedabad and Razzaqabad. Their agenda includes training policemen the know-how of the latest bomb-defusing technology and handling a post-bomb blast situation.

According to officials, the training course will last for seven days, the men will give lectures on bomb defusing during the first five days and in the last two days, they will be taught what to do after a bomb blast has taken place.

Target killings continue

Target killings resurfaced across the city on Sunday with the deaths of four more people, including a former Sunni Tehreek (ST) activist and two Bengali men.

A 29-year-old man, identified as Kamran was shot dead within the limits of the Risala Police Station.

SHO Tariq Emran said the victim was a former ST activist and a driver by profession. In a separate incident, a 45-year-old trader, Imran Khan, was shot dead by unidentified men in a Prado jeep near Khan’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The police also found the body of a 28-year-old Bengali man, identified as Abdullah, near Korangi 100 Quarter.

Similarly, Ayub Bengali, 42, was shot dead inside his house in the Kausar Niazi Colony within the limits of the North Nazimabad police station. Meanwhile, three people were injured when unidentified men opened fire in Ashfaq Colony on Sunday. The injured were taken to the Civil hospital, where the condition of 22-year-old Tahir Khan. Drug peddlers in the area are believed to be behind the incident.

Activists of the Awami National Party (Sindh chapter), as well as members of the Pakhtun community, blocked the KPT road and the Native Jetty Bridge in protest against the incident. According to an ANP activist, the incident was the result of clashes between two groups who openly sell drugs in the area. He said that they had opened fire during their quarrel, in which pedestrians had been injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2010.

KARACHI: Death toll from the latest spate of target killings in Karachi climbed to 43 on Monday, while over 70 were injured.

Police have so far arrested 61 suspects from various parts of the city.

According to Superintendent Police (SP) of Landhi Nasir Aftab three people were gunned down and another wounded by unidentified men while sitting in a carpet shop in the area.

Another man was killed and two others injured, in a shooting incident near Maleer Mandar. Unidentified miscreants also shot dead a handicapped man in Sharafi Goth area of the city.

Later, three bodies were recovered from Kalakot and Kalri, while four people were killed in Keamari and Pirabad. Two people were also gunned down in Qasba colony while another man was killed in Maleer.

Updated from print version (below)

Karachi death toll rises to 37, MQM wins Orangi seat

The death toll in Karachi rose to 37 on Sunday as violence continued for a second day in different parts of the city while the MQM declared victory in the critical Orangi by-elections.

In a related development, President Asif Zardari rejected the resignation of Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat ul Ebad, who had earlier flown in to Islamabad to hand in his papers. Instead, president Zardari asked Governor Ebad to work on the “almost collapsing law and order situation” in the provincial metropolis.

Earlier, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) shook  the struggling PPP-led government on Sunday as reports surfaced that the party was contemplating pulling out of the Sindh coalition government in protest against the ongoing spate of targeted killings in Karachi.

A joint session of the MQM’s Central Coordination Committee in London and Karachi discussed all possible options available to the party in view of the latest developments in the city, following which Governor Ishratul Ebad flew to Islamabad to tender his resignation, sources said.

In the meantime, targeted killings continue in the city. As the situation deteriorated, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah ordered the police and Rangers to take immediate action. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik also issued directives to the law-enforcing agencies to increase deployment in sensitive areas and take action “without discrimination.”

He also talked to the MQM leadership, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, and Sindh government’s top functionaries to calm the situation.

Another development in the day was the massive yet expected win in the Orangi by-elections by MQM candidate Saifuddin Khalid. He bagged 91,397 votes from PS-94 where the turnout was recorded at 69 per cent. Despite ANP’s boycott of the elections, its candidate Riaz Gul secured 292 votes while independent candidate Zeenat Yaseem bagged only 100 votes. Abdul Haq and Masood Alam, who were covering candidates for Khalid, collected 90 and 57 votes, respectively.

Returning Officer Syed Nadeem Hyder told The Express Tribune that no votes were cast in three out of 86 polling stations. The average votes cast in each polling station were between 1,100 and 1,200. He said that a total 92,125 votes were polled, of which 189 were rejected bringing the number of valid votes tally to 91,936.  PS-94 had been declared vacant following the assassination of MQM’s senior leader Raza Haider. Khalid outdid his predecessor by 11,763 votes; the slain MQM leader had secured 79,634 votes in the 2008 general election.

Sindh’s provincial election commissioner Sono Khan Baloch told The Express Tribune that elections were generally held in a peaceful atmosphere. Although no untoward incident was witnessed, six persons were arrested near the Fountain English High School in Fareed Colony for creating a law and order situation, he said.

Earlier, the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) withdrew from its observation of the by-election in PS-94 due to what it called “deteriorating security situation in Karachi”. It said the reason why it pulled out was because the security situation “put the life and safety of observers” at risk. Fafen had trained 11 election observers to observe the polling process in the constituency, who were also accredited by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Meanwhile, ANP provincial president Shahi Syed set aside allegations that the party was involved in target killings. He alleged that “it has been a practice of the MQM to get votes at gunpoint.”  He claimed that since their demand for holding polls under army supervision was not met, they preferred the boycott to avoid confrontation.

According to a statement released on the MQM’s website late on Sunday, the coordination committee alleged that the government was abetting criminals “as a silent spectator” instead of providing protection to its people. It alleged that the ANP and Peoples Aman Committee were directly involved in the acts of violence.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Fayyaz Laghari said police were investigating how many cases constituted target killings. He said around 20 police personnel have been suspended from different parts of the city, including Orangi Town, Baldia , and Kati Pahari.

(With additional reporting by Salman Siddiqui and Zia Khan)

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2010.

KARACHI: Although the newly constructed Bacha Khan flyover was the scene of violence the night before, it carried The Express Tribune team safely across to Orangi Town on Monday.

While no Rangers or police personnel could be seen from SITE towards Orangi Town, a large number of law enforcers popped up towards the Bacha Khan flyover, which is not more that two minutes away from the PS-94 constituency.

Four vehicles and eight motorcycles bearing Rangers jawans crossed our path. Moving ahead, we could see more of them deployed alongside streets and roads.

“Thank God one party boycotted the election. Otherwise we would have suffered for days to come,” said Taj Haider Khan, a fruit vendor. “These elections have made our lives miserable. Who cares about who wins or loses? Let us do our jobs.”

The MQM stronghold

In Haryana Colony, where violence had been reported, the UC 2 polling stations were “sensitive” because of around 25,000 registered voters. Most residents vote for the MQM as they belong to the Urdu-speaking community.

Muhammad Ali, an MQM supporter, said that even if the ANP has contested, they would not have received more than a few votes in the area. “Why would people vote for them? They have done nothing,” he said. The number of residents expected to vote at Government Boys Girls Secondary School, Haryana Colony -  a polling station for women – was 1,064. By 3 pm, around 800 residents had turned up.

“Hopefully, others will also cast their votes,” said presiding officer Jameel-ur Rehman. Eight Rangers jawans stood on the top of the building and four police cars were parked outside the station.

A silent protest by the ANP

On the border of Haryana Colony lies Farid Colony, where most residents support the ANP. After the party’s decision to boycott the election, all that greeted us were black ribbons that fluttered in the wind as a symbol of their protest.

“Our demands were not met by the government so we are protesting peacefully,” said Safdar Afridi, an ANP worker. He was one of the many young men who were sitting outside polling station Al Qadeer Public School. Afridi said that they did not want any violence and anyone who wanted to vote would be unhindered. “It is their right. But I am not voting.”

According to the station’s presiding officer, while the estimated number of voters in the area was 1,500, no one had come. “We don’t expect any votes today,” he said. On the way back, a law enforcer near the flyover said that the elections had been peaceful. “We were not expecting this day to be this peaceful,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2010.

KARACHI: The case of the Khayaban-e-Shamsheer accident in which four people were killed was mishandled by the police, the victims’ families told The Express Tribune.

The accident took place at Defence Housing Authority’s Khayaban-e-Shamsheer on August 31. The accused in the case, Saad Ali Khan, who is the son of FIA deputy director Athar Ali Khan, was released on bail by Judicial Magistrate (South) Abu Ali Jatoi on September 3.

A relative of Sabiha, a housewife who was killed in the accident, accused the police of creating legal hindrances for him and Sabiha’s family. The family was offered compensation money after Saad was released on bail, he said.

The truce took place with the mediation of Saad’s lawyer, the relative claimed. “We had no other option. The state lawyer was not interested and the police had pushed us into a corner. So we had no other option but to go for a settlement,” he went on to say, on condition of anonymity. “Money and power wins and who really cares what happened to a house-maid.”

While the families have been accusing the police and the lawyers of mishandling the case, Mushtaque Awan, Saad’s lawyer, claimed that his client was innocent and the police did not deal with the case properly. “Actually the accident had occurred because of the other car’s driver who was not even arrested,” Awan said.

He claimed that the police failed to lodge the FIR against the other driver who was driving a Honda Civic, as he belonged to an influential Baloch family. According to police officials, the other driver’s name was Munir Mengal who was also arrested with Saad but was later released. “The police levelled charges against my client only and he was held responsible for the accident, while the other boy was freed,” he said.

Lawyer Mushtaque Awan said the police had failed to even produce a charge sheet against his client. “He was innocent.” The lawyer also told The Express Tribune that the offense is a bailable one. Saad Ali Khan had also filed an application against the police in court for accusing him and releasing Mengal, Awan added.

An inquiry committee was also set up by the investigation officer in the case, he went on to say. Saad, according to him, had complained of the same thing to the higher authorities of the police who had set up the inquiry committee.

At the time of the accident, Saad was in a Toyota Corolla, bearing the licence plate number AFN 934. It collided with a Honda Civic. When the cars collided, one of them hit the footpath and the other spun, injuring the people who were waiting at the bus stop. The accident took place at 8:18 pm, in which, according to the hospital records, four people had been killed.

Officials said that the FIR against Saad Ali Khan was filed on early Wednesday morning, whereas the incident had occurred on Tuesday, August 31, evening. However, police records show that the FIR was filed two hours after the accident.

Because Saad’s family was unable to immediately present his driving license, the FIR was filed under section 320. The license was submitted on Wednesday evening.

However, Investigation Officer Aslam Kolachi, who was suspended and then transferred to the Garden Police headquarters, says that his suspension had nothing to do with the Shamsheer case. “We filed a charge sheet against the accused and dealt with the case fairly,” he said. According to him, the police had performed at their level best in the case.

The then SSP Investigations Athar Rasheed Butt, who was in charge of investigations for Clifton town in September when the inquiry of the case was going on, said he had no knowledge of the case. TPO Clifton Tariq Dharejo refused to talk to the The Express Tribune on the accident.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2010.

KARACHI: The bodies of three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers were found in a car in Malir Halt, within the limits of the Airport police station on Thursday.

According to the police, the victims, identified as Shahbaz Ahmad Khan, Sabir Ali and Shahid Ahmad, also known as Charbi, had rented a white Honda Civic from a man identified as Khalilullah Khan on Wednesday. The three men went missing the same day.

On Thursday, the police received information that a car, with the bodies of the three men, was parked near Malik Apartments. The police believe that the unidentified killers were transporting the bodies somewhere else, but were forced to escape on foot when one of the tyres burst. All three men had been shot dead.

“They were shot in the chest and head,” said SSP Shah Faisal Town Shaad ibn Maseeh. “We reached the spot and took the bodies to Jinnah hospital.”

According to the doctors, the men were shot dead from a distance of less than six meters. Along with the NICs of the three men, the police also found a picture of MQM leader Altaf Hussain from one of the victims’ pockets, which led them to believe that this was an incident of target killing. “We will soon arrest those involved in the murder,” said CCPO Fayyaz Laghari.

Meanwhile, another MQM worker, identified as Asim, was shot dead by unidentified men on motorcycles while he was sitting outside his house in Orangi Town sector 1-D. Asim was a worker of MQM Unit 131 and was also an employee of the CDGK, said Orangi Town SHO Raja Tariq.

The bodies of two other MQM workers were found on Wednesday, bringing the total number of MQM workers killed over the last 24 hours up to five.

According to SSP Maseeh, Shahbaz, a resident of North Karachi, was an active worker of the MQM whereas Sabir and Shahid, both residents of Surjani Town, were well-wishers of the party. Shahbaz and Sabir were both employees of the City District Government Karachi while Shahid worked as a real estate agent.

“The blood bath over the last 24 hours has been a selective target killing of MQM workers,” said MQM deputy convener Farooq Sattar at a press conference at the National Press Club, Islamabad, on Thursday. He insisted that the word ‘target killing’ implied a two-sided feud, whereas in this case the MQM was the sole victim.

“These are not ethnic or sectarian killings. These are purely selective, unilateral, one-sided target killings of MQM workers,” Sattar reiterated, adding that this was not the first incident of “terrorism against the MQM”.

Around 200 MQM members and workers have been killed since January 2009, he said, claiming that none of the culprits had been caught during this time.

Sattar alleged that the members of the Lyari gangs were being supported by certain officials in the Sindh government. “The entire country knows that the Lyari gang members are also involved in robberies and dacoities in houses, banks, markets and business centres. They are also involved in extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom cases. They conduct these crimes openly, giving numbers and names,” Sattar, claimed, adding that the CPLC has details regarding these criminals, whose names have also been revealed in newspapers.

“Despite this, the police and [government] officials don’t touch these people and the entire country is being held hostage by these criminals,” he added. We have informed the international community that the incidents of terrorism in Karachi are [taking place at the hands of] the land mafia, drug mafia and politicians who support the Lyari gangs and want to destroy Karachi. They want to destroy the country’s economy,” he alleged.

“The MQM has proof that Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza is a patron of the Lyari gang war.” Talking to the media at the Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall on Thursday, MQM Rabita Committee member Waseem Aftab condemned the murders of the five MQM workers, claiming that the government had turned a “blind eye” to the killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2010.