Lyari gang member hired for Ali Raza Abidi’s murder: police

Members of Lyari-based gangs being hired to carry out murders in the city, claim sources

KARACHI: Police claimed to have made a startling discovery during the investigations into the murder of former Muttahida Qaumi Movement MNA Syed Ali Raza Abidi. According to a police source, the former lawmaker's assassins were previously associated with a Lyari-based gang and had been hired for the job.

Abidi was shot dead outside his house in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood on December 25. The assailants, two men on a motorcycle, had managed to escape from the scene.

Subsequently, the murder case was registered at Gizri Police Station. Sometime later, however, the investigation was transferred to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

According to a source in the CTD, the investigation team has acquired the phone numbers of two suspicious persons through geo-fencing, who were present in the area at the time of the crime. Both the persons have since fled to Iran.



The source further claimed that the assassins were hired guns and were most probably affiliated with a Lyari-based gang.

A crackdown has been initiated against the criminals who had gone into hiding after the operation against gang members was initiated in Lyari.

The police official added that there have been other incidents where members of Lyari-based gangs were used as hired guns to carry out murders in the city. One such incident was the murder of Ehtesham, who was killed in Liaquatabad days before Abidi's murder. The same weapon was used in both cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2019.