Pakistan

Target killings : MQM-H 2nd in command gunned down at Tariq Road

Men were returning from a meeting in jail with Afaq Ahmed, whose lawyer was killed in March 2010.

Express April 11, 2011

KARACHI:

Three political activists and a woman were killed in a drive-by shooting on Monday.

Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (Afaq group) vice-chairman Akhtar Hussain and four MQM-H activists were returning from Central Jail Karachi after visiting party leader Afaq Ahmed when four armed men on motorcycles intercepted them on Tariq Road and opened fire at them. Hussain and another activist were in a Suzuki Cultus, registration number APH-253, while two other workers were on a motorcycle just behind them.

Police maintained that they tried to chase the suspects but in vain.

Hussain and Abdul Kareem, who was a member of the MQM-H Karachi Organising Committee, along with Sohaib. Salman Irshad and Anwar sustained injuries. A passerby, Shamur Nehar, also died in the shooting spree, said Jamshed Town SP Amir Farooqi.

He said that initial investigations indicate that the culprits were following the victims from the jail. “They sprayed the car and the motorcycle with bullets when they stopped at the Tariq Road traffic signal,” he added.

A police team on routine patrol was not far away but they were unable to catch the suspects. The assailants used 9mm and .30 bore pistols. The police also found around 30 empty shells from the crime scene. The victims’ bodies and the injured were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. JPMC accident and emergency incharge Dr Seemin Jamali said that two of the injured workers had critical injuries and were admitted while the other one was moved to a private hospital.

Past incidents

In March 2010, Afaq Ahmed’s lawyer, Sohail Anjum, and three others including a taxi driver, were killed in the same area. The lawyer too had been on his way back from visiting Afaq.

MQM-H leader Shamshad Ghouri told The Express Tribune that Hussain and the others had earlier changed their route through the Shaheed-e-Millat road out of security concerns.

They were on their way back home. He accused people from a “rival political party”, who had been tipped off by someone inside the jail for the attack. It was the same line of attack that was followed in Sohail Anjum’s murder, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (13)

Sultan Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Some time i think, when he talk about any loyal general's step in, i feel he is right in his philosophy. Power must be concentrated not in divisions, if it would be in division then result you received in unrest and killing including target killing. Any good general should step in,he is rightly saying, I am hundred percent agree with him(Altaf Hussain) Administrative chain must be consisting on head and subordinate there is success in it ,look back, history is witness.

Sultan Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Target killing is continued, it has unleashed in the manner, Agencies,busy imposing peace has,no doubt failed, what is remained there,only the army can control there, it is last and final.

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IUHS | 13 years ago | Reply @ asmat, huzur, samir, ahmed: if all of you can determine which political party is behind this just by reading the news then each and every one of you should join our police force and catch the people responsible, you can write hundreds and thousands of your useless comments here, that won't do any good in catching the killers, will it? :p

Rayan | 13 years ago | Reply Government, do something for peace!!!!!!!!!!

Rayan | 13 years ago | Reply Government, Do Something about the peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we had enough now

Asmat Jamal | 13 years ago | Reply Who else other than their own mother party and arch rivals known for this type of strong arm tactics. These slain people are neither first nor their last target. May God rid Pakistan of such filthy people who have made the lives of others agonizing in the country. People of Karachi should come out to establish peace by shunning the killers out of politics by the popular vote . Police should go all out to catch the killers.

Asmat Jamal | 13 years ago | Reply Police should go all out to catch the killers.

Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply When we will hear this news that these DOGs would be killed by police in encounter. The police must be so well equipped and efficient that they can at the spot kill those Dogs who have destroyed the peace of this city.

Huzur Baksh Baloch | 13 years ago | Reply Who doesn't know that this is the handiwork of the most treasured and popular party of Karachi. After all they have a claim that their ancestors made this country and they have the right to do what they deem fit. Party with that sort of record still existing in body politic of country with all the important ministries in Provincial government and enormous display of media, shows the charisma of ill gotten money by all available means including extortion..

Samir | 13 years ago | Reply We all know who did that! Dont we Express Tribune? :p

Taimur | 13 years ago | Reply Now, who is behind this killing ???

Taimur | 13 years ago | Reply Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

Asmat Jamal | 13 years ago | Reply Who else other than their own mother party and arch rivals known for this type of strong arm tactics. These slain people are neither first nor their last target. May God rid Pakistan of such filthy people who have made the lives of others agonizing in the country. Truly called “Mustaqil Quami Museebat”, people of Karachi should come out to establish peace by shunning the killers out of politics by the popular vote .

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