SITE fraught with tension over murder of ANP workers

Third ANP activi­st shot dead within two days

KARACHI: The fallout of the murder of two Awami National Party workers was felt by SITE on Thursday as the daylong closure of a major road prevented staff from going to work. To boot, a day after the two ANP activists – Fazal Kareem and Malang Khan – were killed, another was shot dead on MA Jinnah Road near the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum.

Taj Muhammad was deputy president of ANP’s Purani Sabzi Mandi ward. He was shot multiple times by unidentified men.

The murder of Kareem and Khan on Wednesday had an impact in different parts of the city. Angry protestors blocked the road from Habib Bank Chowrangi to Estate Avenue and onwards.

SITE Association Industry’s Chairperson Irfan Moton said factories kept operating as most of the workers come from nearby settlements. “But the office staff could not come. I would say at least 50 per cent of them were absent.”

As tit-for-tat killings continue in Karachi, areas divided on ethnic lines such as SITE have become trouble zones. “Police can’t do much to control the situation under such a charged environment. They are few in number,” said Moton.

Pleas to political parties to leave the factories in peace don’t help either, he said. “We do meet them from time to time but in times like these they don’t respond to phone calls.”

Trader’s son killed

The 28-year-old son of the head of the Khajoor Market Association was shot dead in Lyari while he was on way to his shop.

Malik Tariq was heading towards his betel nut shop when two men casually walked up to him and shot him in the head and chest before disappearing in the maze of narrow lanes, police said.

“This case is quite confusing for us,” said SHO Chakiwara Idrees Bangash. “From what we know Tariq was on good terms with elements in the Lyari gang war. In such cases we naturally suspect extortion as the cause. But this appears a bit different.”

Tariq was the son of Malik Noor Zaman, the head of the Khajoor Market Association. The family is well known in the area as it has been running different shops for many decades.

A First Information Report was not registered as the family took the body to Islamabad for burial.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2012.