Four MQM workers gunned down

Bodies of three MQM workers were found in a car in Malir Halt, Karachi.

KARACHI: The bodies of three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers were found in a car in Malir Halt, within the limits of the Airport police station on Thursday.

According to the police, the victims, identified as Shahbaz Ahmad Khan, Sabir Ali and Shahid Ahmad, also known as Charbi, had rented a white Honda Civic from a man identified as Khalilullah Khan on Wednesday. The three men went missing the same day.

On Thursday, the police received information that a car, with the bodies of the three men, was parked near Malik Apartments. The police believe that the unidentified killers were transporting the bodies somewhere else, but were forced to escape on foot when one of the tyres burst. All three men had been shot dead.

“They were shot in the chest and head,” said SSP Shah Faisal Town Shaad ibn Maseeh. “We reached the spot and took the bodies to Jinnah hospital.”

According to the doctors, the men were shot dead from a distance of less than six meters. Along with the NICs of the three men, the police also found a picture of MQM leader Altaf Hussain from one of the victims’ pockets, which led them to believe that this was an incident of target killing. “We will soon arrest those involved in the murder,” said CCPO Fayyaz Laghari.

Meanwhile, another MQM worker, identified as Asim, was shot dead by unidentified men on motorcycles while he was sitting outside his house in Orangi Town sector 1-D. Asim was a worker of MQM Unit 131 and was also an employee of the CDGK, said Orangi Town SHO Raja Tariq.

The bodies of two other MQM workers were found on Wednesday, bringing the total number of MQM workers killed over the last 24 hours up to five.

According to SSP Maseeh, Shahbaz, a resident of North Karachi, was an active worker of the MQM whereas Sabir and Shahid, both residents of Surjani Town, were well-wishers of the party. Shahbaz and Sabir were both employees of the City District Government Karachi while Shahid worked as a real estate agent.

“The blood bath over the last 24 hours has been a selective target killing of MQM workers,” said MQM deputy convener Farooq Sattar at a press conference at the National Press Club, Islamabad, on Thursday. He insisted that the word ‘target killing’ implied a two-sided feud, whereas in this case the MQM was the sole victim.

“These are not ethnic or sectarian killings. These are purely selective, unilateral, one-sided target killings of MQM workers,” Sattar reiterated, adding that this was not the first incident of “terrorism against the MQM”.

Around 200 MQM members and workers have been killed since January 2009, he said, claiming that none of the culprits had been caught during this time.

Sattar alleged that the members of the Lyari gangs were being supported by certain officials in the Sindh government. “The entire country knows that the Lyari gang members are also involved in robberies and dacoities in houses, banks, markets and business centres. They are also involved in extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom cases. They conduct these crimes openly, giving numbers and names,” Sattar, claimed, adding that the CPLC has details regarding these criminals, whose names have also been revealed in newspapers.

“Despite this, the police and [government] officials don’t touch these people and the entire country is being held hostage by these criminals,” he added. We have informed the international community that the incidents of terrorism in Karachi are [taking place at the hands of] the land mafia, drug mafia and politicians who support the Lyari gangs and want to destroy Karachi. They want to destroy the country’s economy,” he alleged.

“The MQM has proof that Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza is a patron of the Lyari gang war.” Talking to the media at the Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall on Thursday, MQM Rabita Committee member Waseem Aftab condemned the murders of the five MQM workers, claiming that the government had turned a “blind eye” to the killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2010.