Religious scholar shot dead near Kotri bridge

The suspects were waiting for him near Hussainabad Police Chowk.

HYDERABAD: Religious scholar Allama Altaf Hussain alHussaini, who was the vice-president of the Shia Ulema Council, Sindh, succumbed to his injuries after being shot near Karachi on Friday afternoon.

Allama Hussain was attacked near the Hussainabad Police Chowk at the Hyderabad-Kotri Bridge on Thursday night. He was going back from a majlis to his home at Shah Latif Chowk when the suspects, who were waiting for him near the bridge, shot him in the head.

Kotri ADPO Khawar Akbar Sheikh said that Allama Hussain was accompanied by a friend, who felt that something had hit the allama from the front. He fell soon after, he said.

He was taken to Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, where he was kept in the intensive care unit. He was later moved to a private hospital in Karachi as his condition worsened.

Workers and office-bearers of the Shia Ulema Council and Jafria Alliance reached the hospital in Hyderabad, where they shouted slogans against the police and the government for not ensuring security for the scholar. Jafria Alliance provincial leader Rashid Hussain had also announced a strike in Hyderabad and Kotri on Friday.

The funeral will be held at the Malik Asad Sikandar Sports Complex on Saturday. Allama Hussain will be buried at the Karbala Abul Fazal Abbas graveyard in SITE, Kotri. He is survived by two wives, six sons and three daughters.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2011.