Nabbed: 15 suspects detained over attack on shrine

Sketches of outlaws drawn with the help of witnesses.

KARACHI: The police have detained over 15 suspects during targeted raids in Baldia Town in connection with the killings of eight people and injuries to several others in an armed attack at a shrine on the outskirts of Karachi on Sunday night. 

Muhammad Moin, 32, and his three-year-old daughter, Zainab, were among the eight people who lost their lives while 15 others suffered injuries when six to eight armed motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire at the Aastana of Baba Pir Mehrban Shah in Saeedabad.

Following the incident, law-enforcement agencies launched a targeted operation in Gulshan-e-Ghazi and Ittehad Town areas of Baldia Town and apprehended around 15 suspects. The police investigators have also made the sketches of the suspects with the help of witnesses.



The police have registered an FIR against unidentified persons. The investigators suspect the involvement of militants in the attack. “It is the continuation of the attack on a shrine in Gulshan-e-Maymar that left six people dead last month. They [suspects] had warned of more such incidents,” said District West SSP Irfan Baloch, while talking to The Express Tribune. “We have also received some important leads from the detainees and will soon arrest the persons responsible for the incident.”

The funeral prayers of Moin and his daughter were held after Zuhr prayers on main Shershah Road and later they were laid to rest. Moin used to run his mechanical workshop near his home in Shershah. “My brother had taken his daughter to a faith healer because she was sick,” said Moin’s brother, Shah Faisal, while talking to The Express Tribune. “My nephew was also with them but fortunately, he remained safe.”

Separately, Muhammad Essa, 30, a tailor, and Dilbar Khan, 50, a rickshaw driver, were buried in Mawach Goth. Abul Razzak, 60, a factory worker, was laid to rest at Shershah graveyard, while the bodies of Muhammad Nazeer, 45, a driver, Muhammad Ashraf, 50, a contractor, Muhammad Sadiq, 80, were sent to their respective hometowns in Mansehra, Attock and Haripur for burial.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2014.