Target killings: Police clueless on who pulled the trigger

Nine activists of banned outfit killed since January in twin cities.

RAWALPINDI:

The rising incidents of targeted killings have worried traders and common people as well as raised questions about the law enforcement agencies performance. Nine activists of various religious parties have been killed in the twin-cities during the last five months while the perpetrators still remain at large. Police, however, claim the situation is normal.

A police officer requesting not to be named said the situation was under control and in such a big city such incidents are a routine matter.

“In Karachi, on an average six to 10 persons lose their lives in incidents of target killing daily while only eight to nine persons have lost their lives here during the last five months,” he said. Police of all stations where cases of target killings are registered, when contacted, said that investigations are under way and they have nothing to share with the media at the moment.

City Police Officer Humayun Bashir Tarar could not be reached for his comment.

Traders who have been facing threats from extortionists for the past couple of months show concern over this trend as well.

“They want to make Rawalpindi another Karachi where target killers and extortionists are having a field day,” said a trade union leader requesting anonymity.

The political leaders, fearing they might also be attacked, declined to comment on the dangerous trend.

The targeted-killings which started after November 17 last year when Ashura violence took place claiming 15 lives have come at regular intervals.

On Thursday, two activists —Nasir Abbasi and his colleague Mufti Ishtiaq— were gunned down near Maryam Marriage Hall in Shamsabad.

On March 12, another leader of a religious outfit Muhammad Abu Bakar was gunned down in Rawalpindi.

Three shopkeepers of Dubai Chaddar House and Ali Chaddar House at Purana Qila were gunned down near Jamia Masjid Hanafia on February 22.

On January 3, general secretary of a religious party Mufti Muneer Muavia and Asad Mehmood were shot dead in Sector I-8/3 in the jurisdiction of Industrial Area Police Station.

Five masked men riding on three bikes opened fire on Muhammad Ramazan Qureshi, Muhammad Tufail and Sheikh Nasir killing them on the spot. Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat district information secretary was killed while two others were injured on March 11 on Islamabad Expressway.

Cases have been registered in all of the above incidents but no progress has been made to arrest the killers till date.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2014.