UN doctor injured in attack on vehicle near Sohrab Goth

Security officials gather alongside a United Nations' vehicle which had been attacked by unidentified gunmen in Karachi on July 17, 2012. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: A foreign doctor was injured when unknown men opened fire on a vehicle belonging to the United Nations (UN) passing through Koochi Camp near Sohrab goth on Tuesday, Express News reported.

Initial reports suggested that the doctor, identified as Dr Foston, received injuries when unknown men opened fire on the SUV he was seated in. However, it could not be ascertained as to how many people were travelling with him.

Local police said two young Afghan men opened fire on the vehicle.

“A foreigner was wounded critically while his driver sustained superficial wounds,” senior police official Shahid Hayat told AFP.

“One of our drivers and one of our staff were hurt, but currently they are both stable,” an official from the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) told AFP from the capital Islamabad.

Dr Foston was shifted to Patel Hospital situated nearby, where doctors declared that he was out of danger.

He went on a visit to Koochi Camp, one of the Afghan refugee settlements in Karachi for a polio immunisation campaign.

According to Express News correspondent Nadeem Ahmad, Dr Foston is in Pakistan for the polio eradication campaign.

Soon after the incident, police started a search operation in the Sohrab Goth area for the culprits.

Security personnel had raided a house belonging to Sher Zaman Mehsud apart from other places in the area and had arrested five people on suspicion and seized two pistols from them.