Tension over youth murder runs high amid calls for calm

Police share details of some 12 FIRs against the slain person

HYDRABAD:

Murder of a youth allegedly by restaurateurs of Afghan origin triggered a strong reaction as mobs were seen harassing people running tea and tandoor shops in Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh.

Tensions ran high in Hyderabad on second consecutive day on Wednesday as dozens of men riding motorbikes forced shops of Pashto and Persian speaking people to close in Tower Market area. Similar incidents also happened in Shaheed Benazirabad districts.

Meanwhile, Sindhi nationalist workers took to streets in Larkana, Dadu, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Noushehro Feroze and other districts as well, condemning killing of Bilal Kaka, 35, in Hyderabad on July 11.

Kaka was a local office-bearer of Pak Sarzameen Party. In a statement, the PSP condemned the incident but objected to associating Kaka's killing with any nationality or ethnic group.

According to the FIR, which was registered at Bhitai Nagar police station, Kaka and his four friends were having dinner at Super Salateen Hotel along Hyderabad Bypass and near Wadhu Wah Gate, when an argument sparked with the waiter. The friends approached the owner with the complaint but he allegedly further aggravated the situation which descended into a fight.

Bilal was fatally attacked with iron barbeque skewers. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Liaquat University Hospital. Kaka's brother Salam Kaka, who is a security guard, has nominated the owner Haji Shah Sawar and four others in the FIR lodged under Sections 302, 324, 147, 148, 149, 337 (H2) and 109 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The police on Wednesday produced Sawar before the judicial magistrate IV who granted his two-day physical remand.

Cops suspended

SSP Hyderabad Amjad Shaikh also suspended seven policemen who were reportedly present near the place of the incident but took no action to prevent the situation from spiraling up.

The SSP has also formed a three-member committee under ASP Hasnain Waris to conduct an inquiry of the response of the local police. The committee will also probe a video being circulated on social media in which the police were seen standing indifferently at the place of the incident. The committee will also supervise investigation of the case in question.

Meanwhile, police sources informed that Kaka had a criminal record. The Bhitai Nagar police station SHO on Wednesday shared details of some 12 FIRs which were lodged against the slain person from 2014 to 2021 at six police stations of Hyderabad, including six at Naseem Nagar police post alone. Four FIRs contains sections of attempt to murder while one concerns exchange of fire with the police.

Call for sanity to prevail

"We condemn the incident of the killing as well as the reaction which has sparked in the province," said Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz President Sanan Qureshi at a press conference in Larkana on Wednesday. "Great Sindhi nationalist leader GM Syed had relations with iconic Pashtun freedom fighter and nationalist Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and we have received with open arms the outside people who have come to Sindh."

Qureshi feared that under a conspiracy an ethnic clash was being sparked. He appealed to Sindhis to remain peaceful and not attack the people who have come to their province to earn a living.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2022.