The case continues: Man shot dead before bus attack

Eleven more people were shot dead across the city on Sunday.

KARACHI:

The police have nominated about two dozen men while registering a case for the attack on a coach carrying Sindh Reserve Police in Korangi on Friday night. However, a relative says that one of the men on the list was shot dead at least an hour before the incident, and could not, therefore have been involved.

Meanwhile, eleven more people were killed, bringing the total to 85 on the fifth day of violence in Karachi that started with the kidnapping and killing of five Baloch men.

An investigation team has a week to investigate the Korangi Chakra Goth attack which left at least three policemen dead and 32 others injured when around two dozen men on motorcycles ambushed the vehicle. DIG East Naeem Akram is leading the team.

On Sunday, the FIR, No. 434/11, was registered on behalf of the state against nearly two dozen suspects, including Shahid alias Burger, at the Zaman Town police station. Shahid worked for the city government. On-duty police officer Mohammad Khalid told The Express Tribune that two attackers, including Shahid ‘Burger’ and Furqan, were killed themselves and two others, Atif alias Asif and Abdul Hakeem, were injured in the retaliatory firing by the police. Atif and Hakeem are in police custody.

However, Shahid’s brother Murtaza Ghauri told The Express Tribune that his brother was killed in a drive-by shooting nearly one hour before the bus attack. The FIR for his brother’s murder was registered at the Awami Colony police station and mentions the killing of one more person, Islamuddin, and injuries to two others, Kamran Madhori and Sohail Commando.

“My brother had died an hour earlier, so how could a dead man do all of that?” Murtaza Ghauri asked. “It is the police’s own incompetence that they sent men in plainclothes [in a private, unmarked coach],” he added. “They are pulling this stunt to cover up their own stupidity.” No police official was ready to comment on the alleged discrepancy.

Meanwhile, parts of the city, including Orangi Town, Korangi, Pak Colony and Mehmoodabad, echoed with gunshots. At least six people, including a Pakistan Peoples Party worker, were gunned down alone in parts of Orangi Town.  In the first incident, the bodies of the two young men were found dumped in a cemetery in MPR Colony of Orangi Town. The victims were identified as Zeeshan Sattar and Faisal Qadeer. Police say that both victims were relatives and had left their home to buy food for Sehri but they were kidnapped and killed.

Also in Orangi Town, a cobbler identified as Gauhar Zaman was gunned down near Qatar Morr. In Pak Colony, a body was found stuffed in a gunny bag in Pak Colony while a rickshaw driver, named Rustam Faqir Mohammad, was gunned down near Bismillah Hotel.

Later, a man’s body stuffed in a sack turned up along with a slip of paper saying, ‘Do you want war or peace?’ Shortly after this, PPP worker Shoaib was killed and another identified as Qasim was wounded in Sector 13, Orangi. Another body of a man who has yet to be identified, was found near Teen Hatti bridge by the Super Market police. The three-day-old decapitated and torture-marked body of a man was found in Macchar Colony as well by the Docks police. One man was killed and a car and a rickshaw were set on fire during a clash between two groups in Bilal Colony in Korangi.

In Mehmoodabad, a shoot-out between two drug pushing groups continued in Chanesar Goth. Hooligans torched two houses during the fight and late on Saturday night, Shehryar, 11 and Zeeshan, 16 were shot and killed, and another, Tahir, was injured in Chanesar Goth during crossfiring.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2011.