Surge of violence: 11 killed in separate incidents in Karachi

Shia cleric among those targeted by gunmen in the city.

KARACHI:

At least 11 people were gunned down in separate acts of violence in Karachi on Saturday.

Maulana Syed Baqar Hussain Zaidi, a Jaffaria Alliance member, was injured and the police guard deputed for his security was killed after armed men on a motorcycle intercepted his vehicle in the city’s Liaquatabad area and sprayed it with bullets. Following the incident, the victims were rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the policeman, assistant sub-inspector Syed Qasim Jaffery, succumbed to his injuries.

In a separate incident, Hassan Kashmiri, a resident of Rizvia society was gunned down by unidentified armed men. Following his funeral prayers in the same locality, the mourning procession took his body to the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard to be buried. According to SSP Imran Shoukat, as the procession was passing through the Liaquatabad area, some of the participants opened fire, killing two other people died. Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) condemned the attack on Kashmiri and denied that the participants of the procession had opened fire. An MWM spokesperson added that the attack on Kashmiri was an attempt by some political groups to force their party out of the elections.

In a separate incident, two people were killed and four others were injured in the Model Colony locality when armed men on opened fire at people sitting at a roadside tea stall.

Five other people were gunned down in separate incidents in Liaquatabad and Natha Khan Goth localities as well. An employee of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was also gunned down in the Clifton area.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2013.