Targeted attack leaves one Ahmadi dead, three hurt
The family was returning home from their worship place in Baldia Town.
KARACHI:
In the fifth such incident within a couple of months, another Ahmadi family bore the brunt of growing religious intolerance as one of their members was shot dead while his father, brother and father-in-law were lucky to escape injured in a targeted attack in Baldia Town.
The family was heading home after prayers from a worship place near their house when four armed assailants on two motorcycles fired a volley of bullets at them near Dakkhana Chowrangi.
Saad, 25, who was on his motorcycle, was killed while his father Farooq, 55, brother Hammad, 23, and father-in-law Nusrat, 50, who were in the car, were injured.
Despite being shot five times, Farooq continued to drive the car and managed to reach Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where his young son died while the injured were shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital. Their condition was stated to be critical.
Farooq owns a business of generators and his son Saad was an electrical engineer. Only two days ago, Saad had had his valima reception. Hammad was to leave for England a day after to pursue his MBA degree.
Two relatives of Farooq were also with him in the car but escaped unscathed. “The car had slowed down due to a speed breaker when we were fired at from the front and both sides,” Farooq’s brother-in-law Ashraf, an agriculturist from Punjab told The Express Tribune. “I ducked for cover when the firing started but when I looked out, there was no one outside.”
Since September, government schoolteacher Abdul Ghaffar, police constable Mohammad Nawaz, general store owner Mohammad Ahmad and another man named Naveed have been targeted but police have not found any breakthroughs.
Terming it communal violence, SP Baldia division Shahjahan Khan said that the police were trying to establish the link between the latest and the previous attacks on Ahmadis. “We have to ascertain whether the same group or individuals are behind the killings.”
“As there was adequate security at the worship place, the family was targeted on their way home by the attackers,” the SP added.
Frequent attacks on Ahmadis are an attempt to harass the community, especially by hurting them economically, Jamaat Ahmadiyya spokesperson Masood Khan told The Express Tribune.
He alleged that the police and government are doing nothing practically to secure their lives. Only saying that the lives of Ahmadis are at risk and deploying some policemen at pickets or patrolling is not enough, he added.
No case has been registered.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2012.
In the fifth such incident within a couple of months, another Ahmadi family bore the brunt of growing religious intolerance as one of their members was shot dead while his father, brother and father-in-law were lucky to escape injured in a targeted attack in Baldia Town.
The family was heading home after prayers from a worship place near their house when four armed assailants on two motorcycles fired a volley of bullets at them near Dakkhana Chowrangi.
Saad, 25, who was on his motorcycle, was killed while his father Farooq, 55, brother Hammad, 23, and father-in-law Nusrat, 50, who were in the car, were injured.
Despite being shot five times, Farooq continued to drive the car and managed to reach Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where his young son died while the injured were shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital. Their condition was stated to be critical.
Farooq owns a business of generators and his son Saad was an electrical engineer. Only two days ago, Saad had had his valima reception. Hammad was to leave for England a day after to pursue his MBA degree.
Two relatives of Farooq were also with him in the car but escaped unscathed. “The car had slowed down due to a speed breaker when we were fired at from the front and both sides,” Farooq’s brother-in-law Ashraf, an agriculturist from Punjab told The Express Tribune. “I ducked for cover when the firing started but when I looked out, there was no one outside.”
Since September, government schoolteacher Abdul Ghaffar, police constable Mohammad Nawaz, general store owner Mohammad Ahmad and another man named Naveed have been targeted but police have not found any breakthroughs.
Terming it communal violence, SP Baldia division Shahjahan Khan said that the police were trying to establish the link between the latest and the previous attacks on Ahmadis. “We have to ascertain whether the same group or individuals are behind the killings.”
“As there was adequate security at the worship place, the family was targeted on their way home by the attackers,” the SP added.
Frequent attacks on Ahmadis are an attempt to harass the community, especially by hurting them economically, Jamaat Ahmadiyya spokesperson Masood Khan told The Express Tribune.
He alleged that the police and government are doing nothing practically to secure their lives. Only saying that the lives of Ahmadis are at risk and deploying some policemen at pickets or patrolling is not enough, he added.
No case has been registered.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2012.