Two policemen shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: A police inspector and a constable were shot dead by gunmen riding a motorcycle near a hotel in the Lines Area of Karachi in another targeted killing incident on Thursday night.

Inspector Nasirul Haq, recently posted as the SHO of Brigade police station, was accompanied by constable Khurram Butt at the time of the incident. The assailants opened fire at the police officials when they were stopped for a routine snap checking near the German Hotel in the Lines Area. SHO Hassan, who sustained head and chest wounds, and the constable were taken to the Civil Hospital for medical examination.

DSP Asad Ali Choudhry said that a bystander was injured during the firing. The SHO was on his way to the police station at the time of the incident.

Officials said that Hassan, who played a vital role in a crackdown against a political party, lost his cousin and brother-in-law in violent killings. He is also believed to have played a key role against the underworld don, Shoaib Khan, and in the killing of Siddiq Bocha in Baldia Town many years ago in a police encounter.

He had been posted in several police stations in the city, including as a member of the Specialised Investigation Team (SIT). He had also been imprisoned for 19 months with SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan and other officials for ‘mistakenly’ killing a farmer “believing” that he was a wanted criminal known as Mashooq Barohi.

Police also found several empty shells of 9mm and a sub-machine gun from the site of the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2010.