KARACHI:
A police officer who has cracked quite a few target killing cases almost fell victim to one on Monday when four men on motorcycles blitzed his car with bullets. Because the black Toyota Corolla’s windows were tinted they didn’t know that he wasn’t inside.
SI Ashiq Khosa’s gunman-cum-driver Mutahir Hussain was, however, wounded. The two children sitting in the backseat, Khosa’s son Rehan and nephew Masroor, were spared as Mutahir had the sense to jam his foot down on the accelerator.
“My driver had gone to drop the children home and as soon as they approached it, they attacked,” Khosa told The Express Tribune.
But two passers-by were killed - 12-year-old Ali Mohammad Chandio, and Mukhtiar, 40. “They opened fire on the running car,” said a witness. “It was dark and the firing was intense but no one could see what was happening.” The attack took place in the violent Chakra Goth, where Khosa lives.
Khosa is part of the CID’s operations team and works with the high-profile SSP Fayyaz Khan who himself is on a terrorist hit list for nabbing them. SSP Khan told The Express Tribune that Khosa has been playing a vital role against terrorism and target killings and busted several offshoots of the Taliban, banned religious outfits and target killers. These days he was working against target killers which is who they suspect were behind the attack. Khosa was at the office at the time.
Chakra Goth was in the news recently when a bus carrying policemen to a violent spot came under attack. Korangi SP Chaudhry Asad said that they would check to see if this incident was linked to that one.
The firing led to panic in the area and people fled home. A heavy contingent of law enforcers reached the scene but it was too late by then. Relatives of the victims, who hailed from the countryside, got together to protest. Tyres were burnt and scuffles were reported.
Two of Khosa’s relatives were gunned down in Dadu in earlier unrelated incidents and he lost a brother in similar circumstances in Karachi in 2004.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2011.
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