KARACHI:
In another act of targeted killing, two more people were gunned down in separate incidents here on Saturday, raising the death toll from sectarian and political violence to 21 in the month of January.
The 59-year-old Jaffar Mohsin Rizvi, alias doctor, the son of Syed Baqar Rizvi, was gunned down in Gulberg. According to neighbours, the victim was sitting outside his residence and was reading the newspaper when two armed men riding a motorcycle attacked him. He was rushed to a nearby private medical facility where the doctors pronounced him dead. Later his body was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Sources at the medico-legal section said the victim was shot twice in the head and neck from close range.
The victim was the chief of the Karwan-e-Aal-e-Aba (Pvt) Ltd and a trustee of the Imambargah Aal-e-Aba. He was the father of five children - two sons and three daughters. Only his son Ali Rizvi was present at home when the incident occurred as other members of the family members had gone abroad for Ziarat or a pilgrimage.
“We have no enmity with anybody,” said Ali. “My father was killed because he was a Shia.”
Neighbours said that in view of the on-going wave of sectarian violence they had time and again advised Jafar not to sit outside his residence. “But he wouldn’t listen, arguing that death would come at the appointed hour,” said a neighbour Ayazuddin, adding that while “he would not change his routine, terrorists took advantage of it.” Police officials said that a TT pistol was used in the killing. They believed that it was an act of sectarian violence. “It is definitely a case of targeted killing,” says DSP Nasir Bukhari. He said that police were waiting for the family to come forward to register the case. Ahle Tasheeh leader Allama Abbas Kumaili condemned the incident and demanded the government arrest the culprits. He said that it was the second incident in a week in which at least four Shia men were gunned down and the authorities had failed to arrest any culprit behind these incidents.
Political violence
Separately, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Mohammad Aslam, the son of Abdul Qayyum, was killed while three others, including Tahir, 35, Azeem, 52 and Ali, 35, were wounded in an act of targeted killing in Ramswamy.
Police said that four men on two motorcycles came and attacked them when they were sitting on the road. The wounded persons were taken to Civil hospital where one of them succumbed to his injuries. The culprits managed to escape from the scene.
According to SHO Zahid Hussain, the victim was associated with the MQM’s unit 32 and lived in North Karachi. He was an employee of KMC and had gone to visit his parents.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Sane: There is absolutely no comparison between the two regarding target killings. Please be fair. At least there have been no random killings or mosque blasts committed by Shia sectarian outfits. Certainly no case of passengers being dragged down from a bus, lined and shot.
Low level sectarian clashes, skirmishes have always been there. However the rise of Al Qaeda inspired Wahabi sub sects with overseas funding have rendered even Sunni scholars and shrines unsafe.
There is only one group calling another group as Kafir (thereby sanctifying cold blooded murder). No other group or sect considers any other group or sect as Kafir and Wajib-ul-QataL.
Therein lies the major difference and cause of unending bloodshed.
@shadi, there is sectarian violence in Pakistan, no doubt, and it is not only the shias who are targetted. Great scholars like Maulana Yusuf Ludhianwi, Mufti Shamzai etc. fell to this sectarian violence too, so unfortunately, it is affecting all, not only shias, and this should stop.
anyone else who still thinks there is no secreterion violence in pakistan..and shias are not being targeted?
make correction - that's unit 132.