4 policemen die in attack

KARACHI:

 In the second major attack targeting law enforcement officials in less than two weeks, at least four policemen were killed when their patrol van came under fire in Karachi’s Ibrahim Hyderi on Monday evening.

A police patrolling officer, head constable and two constables were attacked by armed assailants while they were on a routine patrol mission in the area.

According to Sub Inspector (SI) Jumman Shah, “They left the police station at around 8 in the evening, a few minutes later, we received information about an attack on the van.”

The police were informed when the injured patrolling officer, SI Afraz made a phone call to his comrades, calling for help after their van had come under fire. “He called and just informed about the attack,” says one of the policemen of the Ibrahim Hyderi police station, who rushed the injured police officers to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

This was the second incident within the span of nine days in Karachi’s District East. Earlier on January 25, six policemen of the same vicinity were killed in two back-to-back attacks on police patrol vans in the Landhi neighbourhood.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2014.