Gunned down target killers were involved in attacks on Express Media group offices: Police

DIG West says the involvement of the two target killers belonging to a banned outfit had been confirmed in 17 cases.

KARACHI: Police on Wednesday claimed that the two ‘target killers’ who were killed in an encounter with police two of days ago in Nazimabad were also involved in the two attacks on Express Media group offices last year.

“This gang conducted similar attacks including the August attack on Express Media Group offices in which two people were injured and the report was registered in the Baloch Colony police station. They attacked the channel again on December 2 and the report was registered again in the same station listing two guards as being injured from their firing.”

The two suspected target killers were gunned down by police, minutes after they had murdered a shopkeeper at Nazimabad’s Old Urdu Bazaar and injured a member of the Dawat-e-Islami, Maulana Zafar Aslam, in consecutive targeted attacks.

Both suspected criminals were killed after an exchange of fire with the New Karachi SHO Chaudhry Afzal who was passing through the area. It was not till later when the real identity of the two men was fully realised. They were identified as Mohammad Ali alias Samar Abbas, a resident of Hassan Colony in Gulbahar. The second killer was identified as Bakir Ali, son of Akhtar Ali, a resident of Jafer Tayar Society in Malir. The deceased were members of the banned sectarian outfit, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, and were believed to have been involved in more than 300 cases of target killings.

Holding a press conference held at his office on Wednesday evening, chief of the District West and Central police DIG Javed Odho informed media about the further development into the killings of the target killers.

DIG Odho claimed that the suspects were allegedly involved in a number of cases, though they have so far confirmed their involvement in only 17 cases of target killings. Of the killings that DIG Odho suspected the men to be involved in, a majority were of policemen and rival religious group members including secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S), Sindh chapter, Mufti Usman Yar Khan, who was shot dead along with his private guard and driver in a targeted attack near Karachi’s Awami Markaz at Shara-e-Faisal in January 17, 2014.

“They were also involved in attacking the Express Media Office twice by lobbing bombs and resorting firing,” DIG Odho claimed. “We have proved as the ballistic reports confirmed their involvement.”

Express Media Group and its members have been came under attack on three separate occasions. At least three people were wounded at the Express Media Group’s Karachi office when an attack utilising improvised bombs and heavy weapons was carried out by unidentified assailants in December 2, 2013. On August 16, 2013, as many as four armed men pulled up at the entrance of the offices and opened fired, injuring two members of staffs.

The third and the most lethal strike on Express Media Group occurred in early 2014, on January 17, when gunmen riding on motorcycles shot dead three Express Media Group staffers sitting in a DSNG van parked near in North Nazimabad from close range. The TTP spokesman had also claimed the responsibility of the third attack.