Police suspect Dr Auj murder was ‘inside job’

KU teachers to continue boycott of academic activities today.

KARACHI: Five days after the murder of Karachi University’s Islamic Studies dean Dr Muhammad Shakil Auj, significant clues have led police investigators to believe that the perpetrators acted in collaboration with some of the varsity’s staff.

On September 18, the 54-year-old scholar was killed by unidentified assailants in Gulshan-e-Iqbal when he was on the way to attend a ceremony that was being organised in his honour at the Khana-e-Farhang Iran [Iranian Cultural Centre].



“The police investigations are heading in the right direction in the light of significant clues that we have received through the family and our intelligence sources,” said District East DIG Munir Ahmed Shaikh, who is heading the six-member investigation team.

The district police chief, flanked by SSP Pir Muhammad Shah, was talking to the media after his meeting with KU vice-chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Qaiser. “Today, we came to the university to let the vice chancellor know that we will have to take some tough decisions, based on the progress in the investigations,” he said. “’It was definitely a case of target killing and if I could, I would have arrested the culprits today. We will arrest them soon though.”

Referring to the ‘tough decisions’, that DIG Shaikh spoke of, Dr Qaiser told The Express Tribune that the police wanted to include some of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the university in the investigations. The vice chancellor refused, however, to comment further on the matter, adding that the KU administration will fully cooperate with the police investigators on whatever assistance they need.

Meanwhile, DIG Shaikh placed emphasis on the FIR that was registered by Dr Auj in 2012 in the Mobina Town police station, stating that a text message, declaring him guilty of blasphemy and thus liable to be killed, was circulated via a mobile phone number. Later, during police investigations, the names of four of Dr Auj’s colleagues surfaced for their alleged involvement in the circulation of these text messages.

Teachers’ continue to protest

To protest the murder of their colleague, faculty members at the KU continued their boycott of academic activities for the sixth consecutive day, stating that they will not partake in teaching until the police arrest the culprits.

On Monday, the KU teachers wore black armbands and held placards and banners as they held a protest rally from the varsity’s administration block to the University Road, blocking the thoroughfare for some time.

Earlier, DIG Shaikh had suggested the KU teachers’ society to resume academic activities while forming a two-member committee that will remain in contact with the police and ensure that they left no stone unturned to find the culprits.

However, a meeting of the KUTS executive council decided to continue the protest on the day and announced that academic activities will remain suspended on Tuesday as well, said the society’s secretary, Moiz Khan.

Following the announcement, the KU examinations controller Dr Arshad Azmi has announced to postpone all the exams scheduled for Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2014.