Murder of party leader: ANP threatens countrywide strike

Party demands arrest of Dr Ziauddin's killers by Tuesday night

KARACHI: The Awami National Party (ANP) threatened to go on a countrywide strike if the killers of party leader Dr Ziauddin were not arrested by Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the slain leader was laid to rest on Monday.

ANP's District West president Dr Ziauddin was gunned down by armed motorcyclists near his residence at Frontier Mor on Sunday as he made his way home after offering Isha prayers at a mosque. This was the third time he had been attacked since last year. In September 2013, the Bomb Disposal Squad defused an explosive device, weighing around 2.5 kilogrammes, planted outside his house. He had also escaped a bomb attack in Metroville, SITE, a few months ago.



Dr Ziauddin, a former union council Nazim of the area, was among the senior workers of the party. He had reportedly been receiving threats from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since last year.

"For the last month, he had again been receiving calls from the TTP threatening him with dire consequences if he did not leave the party or the area," sources within his family told The Express Tribune. "The phone numbers from which the threatening calls were made were provided to the law enforcement agencies each time but no one ever took the matter seriously."

They added that after insisting upon protection, a police constable was provided to Dr Ziauddin for his security. "The policeman was only with him for eight hours a day at the most and the assailants targeted him when the cop was not there," said Dr Ziauddin's family. "He needed more security."

Following the incident, the party, along with the victim's family, relatives and neighbours, staged a sit-in outside the CM House to protest the killing. However, the protest ended late on Sunday night after the Sindh government assured the ANP that the attackers would be arrested soon.

"They [the government and the police] must arrest the attackers as promised by Tuesday night, otherwise we can go on a countrywide strike," ANP leader Younus Buneri told The Express Tribune. "We know that his killers will not be arrested and punished, but we want the world to know that we are peaceful people who are the victims of terrorism."

Gilaman Mehsud, the commander of TTP's Hakeemullah faction, has claimed responsibility for the killing, saying that ANP was helping Karachi's law enforcement agencies to arrest TTP operatives and adding that such attacks would continue in the future. The police, however, have yet to make any arrests in connection with the murder. Pirabad police official Alam Zaib said that the investigation was underway, but the police were looking for complainants to register the case. "We are waiting to see whether they nominate anyone in the FIR," he explained.

Meanwhile, Karachi AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo has sent a proposal to the Sindh government to announce a reward of Rs2 million for anyone who helps the police in arresting the culprits behind the attack.

Dr Ziauddin's funeral prayers were offered at Rehman Baba graveyard in Orangi Town on Monday. He was later laid to rest at Metroville graveyard. Scores of people, including ANP leaders and workers, attended the funeral and the burial.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2014.