MQM MNA Rashid Godil fights for life after gun attack

Driver succumbs to wounds; party decries unheeded complaints

KARACHI:

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Rashid Godil was critically wounded in an attack in Karachi’s Bahadurabad area on Tuesday.

At the time when 54-year-old Godil’s car came under attack, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was visiting MQM headquarters Nine Zero in Azizabad to discuss the party’s resignation from the assemblies.

A New Town police official said the MQM MNA had returned from visiting his mother and was near his house when the assailants opened fire on his four-wheeler. The attack left Godil’s driver dead.

The MNA was admitted at the Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) with gunshot wounds to his jaw, neck and upper torso, causing massive damage to his lungs.

His driver Abdul Matin’s body was shifted to his hometown in Butgram in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for burial.

Read: MQM's Rashid Godil shot, critically injured in Karachi

As the news of the incident spread across the metropolis, major shopping centres and markets were closed at once, as everyone feared a strong reaction. However, the overall situation in the port city remained calm.



The attack

Footage obtained from CCTV cameras installed by the locals in the vicinity of the crime scene revealed that the MQM leader’s car was moving  at the time of the attack, said a police official. “Two men on a motorcycle approached Godil’s vehicle and shot at it at least eight times.”

The policeman said the assailants had been following the car. “As the vehicle slowed down on a speed hump, the pillion rider opened fire.”

The driver stopped the car moments later, got out of the car and then fell unconscious after looking in on Godil in the backseat, added the official.

He said the MNA was an easy target because he had no police or private security escort. “He was once assigned a policeman, but he had refused the offer.”

The first impressions

“The assailants were trained and the entire attack took only 10 seconds,” Gulshan Division SP Abid Qaimkhani told The Express Tribune.

“We shall investigate the case in the light of recent attacks, such as Punjab home minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada’s killing on Sunday. It seems there has been resurgence in the activities of militant or sectarian outfits.”

Forensic experts have collected eight bullet casings of a 9mm pistol. “So far we have not found any record of ballistic cross-matching,” said one of them. “It seems that the gun used in the attack was not used in any prior incident, probably to dodge the investigators.”

A spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers said investigation into the attack had been initiated from different angles. “The attackers will be arrested before long.”

Karachi police chief Mushtaq Mahar has constituted a joint investigation team to probe the incident. East Zone police chief DIG Munir Ahmed Sheikh will lead the team, which also includes the East District SSP Operations, the SSP Investigations and the SP Special Investigation Unit.

An investigator said the police had planned to conduct geo-fencing in a two-kilometre radius of the crime scene to aid in their efforts to arrest the attackers.

MQM leaders ‘in danger’

Following the attack, some of the MQM leaders visited the LNH as the rest of them stayed with the JUI-F chief at Nine Zero.

MQM MNA Ali Raza Abidi told The Express Tribune that the party’s parliamentarians and leaders had been receiving threats from banned outfits on a regular basis.

“We have asked the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and other security authorities several times to look into the threats, but they did not pay heed to any of our complaints.”

Abidi said Godil had told him three days ago that some men had been asking his apartment’s caretaker about his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain said in a statement that the party’s coordination committee had started consultations regarding the attack to decide their next move.

Critical three days

“The next 72 hours are very critical,” said Anjum Rizvi, spokesperson for the LNH, as Godil was put on ventilator support following initial surgeries. Doctors fear that his condition could worsen if his wounds develop infections.

Among the leaders from different political partiers visiting the hospital, Sindh Health Minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar claimed that the MQM MNA was out of danger. “He is being provided with the best healthcare facilities.”

Dahar said the incident was a terrorist attack, adding that all political parties were on the same page when it came to terrorism. “We’re all against it.”

Who is Godil?

A businessman by profession, Godil is an MQM MNA from NA-252, the constituency that includes Karachi’s Garden East, Soldier Bazaar and Bahadurabad areas.

He joined the party in 2004, following which he contested the local government elections and became the nazim from Bahadurabad. He also contested the general elections of 2008 and 2013 and won the NA-252 constituency both times.

After the 2013 polls, he became the MQM’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, but he was recently replaced by Dr Farooq Sattar. He also served as a member of the party’s coordination committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2015.