Two killed in firing at Civic Centre

An official of the Karachi Development Authority opened fire at his colleagues in Civic Centre on Tuesday, killing two of them, and then shot himself to avoid suspicion.

KDA superintendent Muhammad Hafiz gunned down the authority’s Land Department assistant director Wasim Usmani and additional director Waseem Raza at the authority’s land department office on the third floor of the Civic Centre.

To misguide other colleagues and the police, Hafiz then shot himself and hid under a table. As chaos ensued, he claimed that armed men had shot all three of them and then fled. However, the police claim that Hafiz later confessed to opening fire on Usmani, Raza and himself.

The three men were all injured but alive when they were being shifted to the hospital by KDA staff, but Usmani succumbed to his injuries on the way and Raza passed away during treatment.

The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their families after medico-legal formalities.

Scorned ‘friend’

According to police, Hafiz told the cops that the deceased had been his close friends. All three of them, said Hafiz, were dismissed around 20 to 25 days after the appointment of the new land management director (LMD) at KDA.

However, Usmani was reappointed at a different post at the KDA’s Metroville branch, which led Hafiz to assume that Usmani and Raza conspired to get him dismissed from his post but got reappointed themselves.

In his confessional statement, Hafiz told the police that he had been arguing with Usmani and Raza hours before he opened fire at them in anger.

Investigation, another suspect

During their initial investigation, the police said they found a 30 bore pistol and five spent bullet shells at the office. The weapons and the shells have been have been sent for forensic analysis.

The Civic Centre, where the incident occurred, houses the mayor’s office and serves as the headquarters for the city government. The city police’s command and control centre is also located in the building.

Thousands of rupees are allegedly collected in bribes by senior officials for appointments and processing of files in the KDA’s land department. Similarly, allegations have been leveled against additional assistants and superintendents, accusing them of collecting Rs5,000 to Rs6,000 in bribes before forwarding files.

According to East SSP Sajid Sadozai, initial investigation indicates that there was a fourth person in the office with the three men, who fled after the incident.

This person, identified as Imran Shah, was detained by the police two to three hours after the event, said Sadozai.

Shah is also appointed as a superintendent in KDA and Hafiz had asked him to exit the room before opening fire at Usmani and Raza, said the SSP.

The police have launched further investigation into the matter and Shah will be included in their inquiry, added Sadozai.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2020.