PPP office attacked

KARACHI:

Unidentified men riding motorcycles attacked the office of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Baldia Town on Friday.

The office is located in Mawach Goth within the limits of the Saeedabad police. According to witnesses, unidentified men on five to six motorcycles came to the PPP office and opened indiscriminate fire. Later, they entered the office and broke the paraphernalia before setting it on fire. Nobody was hurt in the attack. Police officials said that the assailants managed to escape as the police reached the site immediately after the attack.

Fire-fighters later reached the site to extinguish the fire. Witnesses said that the office was functional where preparations for today's (Saturday) rally at Bagh-e-Jinnah were going on. Some witnesses and police officials claimed that the members of a Lyari-based gang were behind the attack. Tension prevailed in parts of Lyari and other areas such as Gadap, Malir, Dalmia, Mauripur and Baldia Town which were considered to be the strongholds of the PPP. This is because one group, led by Uzair Jan Baloch, is against the PPP and is stopping people from participating in the upcoming rally.

"Members of Uzair Baloch group were behind the incident," said Saeedabad SHO Naveed Nasir while talking to The Express Tribune. "They wanted to show that they are against the PPP."

The officer, however, said that the office has not been functional for the last four years. A case has been registered while further investigations are under way.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2014.