DSP, Ahmadi man killed in Karachi shootings

KARACHI: A senior police officer and a member of the Ahmadiyya community were killed in near-identical drive-by shootings in the metropolis on Sunday night.

Gunmen riding a motorbike sprayed bullets on a police vehicle near Laal Flat on Rashid Minhas Road, killing DSP Faiz Ali Shigri and injuring Head Constable Rasheed, according to Gulshan SP Dr Fahd.

“The gunmen targeted DSP Shigri minutes after he left his home,” SP Fahd said. “Both the victims were posted in the Traffic Police Department.



IG Sindh A D Khawaja, who visited the crime scene along with Karachi police chief AIG Mushtaq Mehr, said that some ethnic group or outlawed organisation might have carried out the attack.

“Terrorists are hitting soft targets. Today’s attack might have been retaliation for recent high-profile arrests made by police to smash terrorist networks,” IG Khawaja told journalists.

Meanwhile another DSP of traffic police, Zafar Hussain, escaped a gun attack on University Road. Gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on his vehicle but fled after DSP Hussain retaliated.

Elsewhere in the city, a man belonging to the Ahmadiyya community was gunned outside his house in Kaneez Fatima Society.

A neighbour said that four gunmen riding on motorcycles targeted Mehboob outside his house in the gated society.

Sheikh Sajid Mehboob, 55, is survived by a 26-year-old son and a 22-year-old daughter, according to Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya spokesperson Saleemuddin.



Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah took notice of the deadly shootings and directed the provincial police chief to submit investigation reports, according to his office.

All three incidents took place in quick succession and in close proximity of each other.

And a source told The Express Tribune that the same team of target killers might have been involved in the three incidents.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2016.