Terror on the tracks: Child dead as train comes under fire

Seven injured, four of them critically; police suspect JSMM hand in third train assault.

HYDERABAD:

A child was killed and seven other passengers injured when unidentified miscreants opened fire at Karachi-bound Bahauddin Zakaria Express near Kotri.

The police suspects Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) carried out the attack. The banned outfit was also blamed for similar cracker and gunfire attacks, which had left three dead and nearly two dozen injured in Hyderabad division on August 13 and 14.

According to the railway officials, bogies number two and six came under fire.

The deceased boy has been identified as 8-year-old Rafiq alias Shahbaz. According to his father, Lateef, they belonged to Burewala in Punjab and were travelling to Karachi.

Four of the seven injured persons have been referred from Taluka Hospital Kotri to the Civil Hospital Hyderabad in a critical condition. The doctors said all of them received gunshot wounds in chest and abdomen and were undergoing surgery.

Meanwhile the Jamshoro and Hyderabad police launched a search operation in Kotri’s Jani Para area on Khanpur Road.

“We received information that the attackers were hiding in this area. Before the operation, we made announcement through microphone and asked all the people in the area to come out of their houses and help the police find the suspects,” Hyderabad Senior Superintendent Police Saqib Ismail Memon said.

He said in a clash during the operation, the police shot dead a suspect and injured another. The latter however fled.

The police sources identified the slain man as Afzal Panhwar, a worker of JSMM’s student wing.

Suspect’s profile:

Afzal Panhwar hailed from Khalid Panhwar village in Dadu district. He had gone missing in June 2011. His family termed it a case of enforced disappearance and blamed the intelligence agencies for it.

Later a petition was also filed in the Sindh High Court which ordered the police in September 2011 to recover him.

Dr Ashothama Lohano, the head of Hyderabad chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, recorded his statement after he was recovered. He said Panhwar told him that he was kept in detention in two to three different places including in Malir, Karachi.

“He said he was interrogated about the blasts at railway tracks and power pylons and threats to the Sindh University’s vice chancellor.”

The SSP Jamshoro Wasee Hyder told The Express Tribune that the local area sources identified the assailants who attacked the train. “We carried out a search operation and raided Panhwar’s house but he opened fire on the police while trying to escape.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2013.