Drive-by shooting: Activist Marvi Sirmid, spouse escape attack

Says she saw assailants’ car up close but failed to note registration number.

ISLAMABAD:

Rights activist and columnist Marvi Sirmid and her husband escaped unhurt from an attack on their vehicle on Murree Road Friday night when assailants fired three shots from a black car parked by the side of the road.

“I saw a hand extend out of the window of a black car with tinted windows, which I think was a black Honda Civic, and fire two shots from a pistol at my car,” Sirmid told The Express Tribune. The couple was on their way to Bani Gala from Murree.

She said another shot was fired at them from behind once they passed the suspicious vehicle.

Sirmid said they immediately rushed to the nearest checkpoint, but the assailants managed to get away by the time the police arrived at the scene.

Upon reaching their house in Bani Gala a few kilometres away, the couple informed the area’s police about the incident. A team of the Secretariat Police reached their residence to record statements.

A senior police officer said Sirmid’s car bore no marks of gunshots. He added it was a miracle the bullets missed them considering they were fired from such a close range, as narrated by her.

He added the entry and exit points of the capital city were put on high alert and that they were keeping an eye out for a car that fits the description. The officer said Sirmid heard the gunshots and saw a hand come out of the vehicle, but could not note down the car’s registration number.

The rights activist and vocal critic of extremism said she did not receive any specific threats apart from the routine prank calls, which she says she never takes seriously. “We do not have enmity with anyone,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2012.