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.
KARACHI:
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 12th, 2011.
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 12th, 2011.