Deputy Secretary Land Department Mohammad Ishaq was attacked during an anti-encroachment drive in New Karachi. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: A deputy director for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was shot dead by unidentified men during an anti-encroachment drive in the New Karachi area on Friday evening.
Muhammad Ishaq, 55, was with a team of workers clearing encroachments near Shafiq Mor when he was attacked.
“As we moved towards the next site after demolishing the first one, he was shot,” says one of the team members while talking to The Express Tribune.
“A single bullet penetrated his body from the back and crossed through.”
Muhammad Ishaq was taken to Abbasi Shaheed hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds during treatment.
The team members claimed they were not given police protection. On the other hand, police officials claimed the allegations were baseless.
“We were not informed by the anti-encroachers,” SHO Sajid Javed told The Express Tribune. “Even they did not arrive there to clear the encroachment with their own force.”
The attack occurred during the 15th day of Karachi Metropolitan Commission's anti-encroachment drive. The drive has been facing resistance from the land mafia.
Earlier this week, the anti-encroachment drive turned violent in Karachi's Saddar area after a few armed groups clashed with government officials. At the same time, residents of various areas have complained that the KMC endeavor and its tall claims of “successfully removing encroachments” as hogwash.
“It is just a cosmetic operation as corrupt officials also receive million of rupees in bribes from the owners of makeshift stalls,” claimed Sallahuddin, a resident of Samanabad.
COMMENTS (7)
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@Jibran: Why are you so out of touch Bro?
This mighty army is doing their job well and these are not just few militants in remote areas, their cousins holding hostage to large a chunk of territory of a next door neighbor of ours (which happens to be out of control even for world mightiest armies).
Now, our civil society should show some spine and support anti encroachment drive every time so that at-least this menace remains in check. We do our job and Army does theirs. simple.
Salute & RIP for the deceased civil officer.
regards,
Speaks a lot about whats going on in the city along with pointing fingers at who did it. The news says that the poor fellow was shot from the back.....now thats very brave of the killer. The sod should be given "sitara-i-jurrat" for such an achievement!
Why can't we for once believe that the person who got shot while leading a team clearing the encroachments was not on the take?
It does not make sense. Those on the take exactly know what and who they are dealing with, and they would never expose themselves to the danger like that.
There are some honest people in all departments and they get shot for doing the right thing. It is the sad part that instead of investigating the crime, it turns into a "blame-game" with the police
. A decades old classic cultural problem: No one accepts responsibility for their own gross negligence, it is always someone else fault. If it was not KMC, then it would have been India, America or Israel. Such has become the story of this sad excuse of a nation.
Deputy Secretary is not a lower level official to get shot; KMC should show some scruples and go zero tolerance with the land mafia for the rest of 2014. Let the pendulum swing the other direction during this year.