One dead, three hurt as cleric survives attack

KARACHI:

Maulana Hammadullah Madni, the Sindh vice president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq, narrowly escaped assassination as his vehicle was targeted by assailants in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Friday. This was the third assassination bid on him.

The cleric’s cousin, who was also his security guard, lost his life in the attack while his brother, another security guard and the driver of a school van, Imdad, were injured. The cleric, his teenage brother Affan Madni, two private security guards, Safdar and Akbar, were on their way to a mosque in Sindh Secretariat, where Hammadullah leads the Friday prayers every week. At least three armed men on separate motorcycles shot at the car near the railway track in Block 13-D-3, witnesses said.

The police have yet to register the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2013.