Mushaira attack: As 8 suspects rounded up, ANP claims activist shot by 9mm pistol

The police do not use that weapon, says party, blaming MQM.

KARACHI:

Eight suspects, including an Awami National Party (ANP) leader, were rounded up during an operation in Clifton after an armed attack on a poetry recital organised by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Sunday night.

The sudden sound of cracking erupted in the air outside the venue, near Two Swords and a short distance from the police club, several diplomatic missions and 70 Clifton. Traffic backed up from Park Towers as confused people tried to turn their cars around to flee.

Inside, guests lay down on the ground as MQM staff ran around making frantic calls on their cell phones. It was the worst possible way to sabotage a cultural event as international guests had come. This attack is likely to be used as a pretext for rejections from guests in future.

One alleged attacker, who was later identified as Kamran, was killed as the police retaliated. As he was discovered to be a resident of Shah Rasool Colony, the police searched it, Neelum Colony and Shireen Jinnah Colony from where at least eight men, including a prime suspect, were picked up.

According to DSP Nayyarul Haq, the arrested Munir is affiliated with the ANP as a ward president in Shireen Jinnah Colony. The Boat Basin police registered FIR No. 152/12 on the complaint of ASI Abdul Ghaffar of Clifton.

According to ASI Ghaffar, at least 11 men had arrived in three cars. “My mobile unit was parked in front and was hit the first by the bullets,” he said. “Perhaps they fired at us to clear the way inside to target the mushaira.”

Two ANP men, Sardar Hakeem and Fahim, were also taken to the nearby private hospital and it is possible that they were involved.

The search operation was met with protests from the residents of the colonies.

For its part, the ANP called for the arrest of the people who had shot and killed their activist. The party maintained that its activists did not attack the mushaira as the MQM claimed. “The police have no proof against our boys,” said Bashir Jan, the ANP’s Sindh general secretary, at a press conference which was held at around the same time as the MQM’s on Monday.

They didn’t find any weapons from the place where the shooting took place, he said, adding that Kamran was killed by a bullet fired from a 9mm pistol, a weapon the police does not use. “MQM workers shot our activists,” he alleged.

About three dozen ANP activists were heading back to Neelum Colony when the incident took place. They had gone to protest the removal of party flags.

“Munir Khan had gone with the police from the hospital and was later arrested,” said Bashir Jan.

According to the ANP’s district south general secretary Khalid Khan, the ANP workers were carrying weapons but he said that they had not tried to disrupt the MQM function. “They were around 40 in number and when they come near the venue, the MQM workers started firing in the air and then there was retaliation from our side,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2012.