Two Dawoodi Bohra men shot dead, another injured

One of the victims had filed a complaint a year ago against a man who attacked him.

HYDERABAD: Two Dawoodi Bohra community members were shot dead and another was injured in separate attacks in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The victims, identified as 42-year-old Murtaza and 60-year-old Shabbir, were gunned down by unidentified assailants near the Cantt police station. Later, Murtaza’s brother, Hatim, was also targeted by attackers, while he was on his way to the hospital to see his brother, City police said.

While police suspect the attack to be motivated by personal enmity, investigators have yet to ascertain the actual reason behind the attacks. The victims’ families and the community representatives are tight-lipped about the matter.

“The brothers were targeted one after the other in separate attacks in separate places,” a police officer said. “Terrorist attacks [religious or sectarian] are indiscriminate, but this one appears to be calculated.”

At the Civil hospital, where the victims were taken, doctors said that Murtaza and Shabbir were shot in their faces and foreheads while Hatim was shot in the right side of his abdomen.

The community and the family are both clueless as to who killed them and why, said Shaikh Muslim Hakeem, the head of Hyderabad’s Dawoodi Bohra community. Murtaza hardly earned a few hundred rupees a day by selling samosas and pakoras while Shabbir was a worker at the Jamaat Khana.

The community representatives met SSP Hyderabad Pir Farid Jan Sarhindi at Cantt police station but Hakeem did not say who will be nominated in the FIR. The case has not been registered yet.

An eyewitness to the attack, a dry fruit seller, said that he could not see the faces of the two attackers who fled on a motorcycle. He has also given his statement to the Cantt police.

Murtaza lived in a small apartment with his wife and a four-year old daughter. Shabbir was single and lived alone.

A year ago, Murtaza had lodged a complaint with Cantt police station against a man accusing him of attacking after barging into his house, a police source told The Express Tribune.  The details of this attack were, however, unclear as the police did not comment on the matter and the community was also reluctant to divulge any information.

The markets in Bohri Bazar, Wadu Wah Road and Burhani Nagar areas were closed on Sunday as the funeral of the victims was held at the Bohra Jamaat Khana. Over half a dozen police mobiles were deployed in Bohri Bazaar to provide security to the people attending the funeral.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2012.