Another DSP shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: A deputy superintendent of Sindh police was gunned down in a targeted attack in Karachi on Tuesday. Three DSP-ranked officers have been killed in the port city in the past 40 days.

SITE DSP Majeed Abbas had left his house in Shah Latif Town for his workplace at around 10am when four unidentified men on two motorcycles targeted him inside his police van, Karachi AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo said. The slain officer was among four personnel assisting the investigation officer (IO) of the Baldia factory fire case, SITE SP Sajid Sadozai. “Although he had no direct link with the investigation team, SP Sadozai had been taking his assistance,” said one of the four officers.

Usually DSP Abbas was escorted by a security squad but he was alone when he was attacked. “Maybe the attackers live in the same area or had support of someone nearby,” said his relative Shahid.

The DSP was critically wounded in the attack and taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he died. Doctors said the victim was shot at least six times with a small firearm. The police did not find any empty bullet casings at the crime scene, Shah Latif DSP Fakharul Islam said. He believed the assailants took away the empties to leave no clues behind.

The officer was the third DSP slain in Karachi in 40 days. On May 10, DSP Zulfiqar Zaidi was gunned down in Shah Faisal Colony. Steel Town DSP Abdul Fateh was shot dead in Gulshan-e-Hadeed on May 1.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2015.