Traders accuse mafia of target killing

The country’s largest spare-parts market closed down as traders protest the killing of their colleague.

KARACHI: The country’s largest spare-parts market closed down on Wednesday as traders protested the killing of their colleague.

An auto spare parts dealer, Haji Irfan Khatri, was gunned down on Tuesday, when it appeared that he showed resistance to motorcycle thieves. The protesters alleged, however, that the shopkeepers were being threatened by the extortion ‘mafia’ for the last two years and they believed that Khatri was killed by them.

Meanwhile, at least eight people including three activists of the Awami National Party (ANP) and three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists were gunned down in targeted killings on Wednesday.

All three ANP workers were separately shot dead in Pehlwan Goth. ANP spokesman Qadir Khan said the culprits first killed Khayal Wazir, the cousin of ANP’s ward president Liaquat Bangash, and then murdered Saleem Khan after kidnapping him. The third member, Shahid Ghani, was killed when he was going to attend the funeral prayers of Wazir and Saleem Khan.

Fifty-year-old Shakir Ali, an MQM worker, was killed and three other activists were hurt in Manghopir. Earlier, a bullet-riddled body of another MQM worker, Adil Sattar, was found from Khokhrapar police precincts.

Separately, head constable Rana Sohail alias Akhri Baloch, 38, was gunned down.Similarly, a Pashto-speaking man, Wali Hassan, was shot dead in the limits of the Mochko police station.

Another MQM worker, identified as Sajjad Ahmed, was shot dead near Jauhar Chowrangi within the limits of the Sharae Faisal police station. In another incident, an alleged drug peddler, Kamran, was shot dead in Azizabad.An unidentified man was gunned down in firing at a hotel in the Pirabad police station precincts.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2011.