Targeted attack: Hyderabad jail’s former superintendent shot dead
Suspect was alone on a motorcycle when he shot Aijaz Haider multiple times
Ejaz Hyder. PHOTO: SINDH POLICE
KARACHI:
A former superintendent of Hyderabad jail, Aijaz Haider, was shot dead in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Friday morning.
Haider was travelling on his black Toyota Corolla bearing a government registration licence plate, when he was shot dead near Pehlwan Goth. Witnesses said that one man riding a motorcycle intercepted the car that Haider was driving and shot him multiple times. Haider died on the spot.
His body was taken to the nearby Darul Sehat Hospital and was later shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for an autopsy. The family of the victim also reached the hospital and took the body for burial. The police have yet to register the case.
Though Haider was a resident of Karachi, he was posted to various jails in rural Sindh including Hyderabad, Larkana and Nara jails for the past several years. He spent the most time at Hyderabad jail, but he was transferred from this post nearly two weeks ago. He had also filed a petition at the Sindh High Court against out-of-turn promotions as several of his junior officials were promoted ahead of him.
He was known to be a strict jailer. "Everyone, even hardened criminals, was afraid of him," recalled one of Haider's colleagues at Hyderabad jail, adding that hundreds of inmates considered him as their enemy. "He was too aggressive an officer."
Crime scene
According to Sharae Faisal police, there were three women, named Shazia, Aqsa and Sehrish, in the car with Haider when he was targeted on Friday morning and one of them, Aqsa, was injured as well. Haider was going somewhere from his house in Gulistan-e-Jauhar's PIA Society, where he had moved recently from Garden.
"A young man came close to the car. He did not talk to Haider but just pulled out his gun and opened fire at him," said Shazia. The man, who was wearing trousers and a shirt, escaped after the shooting, she added. Haider was shot at least 16 times from point-blank range and the police have recovered the empty shells.
Not 'sectarian'
The officials investigating the case have ruled out the possibility that Haider was attacked due to his sect and hinted that he may have been targeted due to personal enmity. "We are investigating the case from two different angles," said Gulshan-e-Iqbal SP Abid Qaimkhani. "Firstly, the inmates who may want to avenge the treatment Haider meted out to them in jail. Secondly, it could be a personal enmity that somehow involves the three women who were in the car."
The officer said that Shazia recorded her statement with the police and said that Haider helped her get a divorce from her husband and she was currently living with Haider. Earlier, Aqsa told the police that she had no relations with Haider but later claimed that she was his second wife.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2015.
A former superintendent of Hyderabad jail, Aijaz Haider, was shot dead in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Friday morning.
Haider was travelling on his black Toyota Corolla bearing a government registration licence plate, when he was shot dead near Pehlwan Goth. Witnesses said that one man riding a motorcycle intercepted the car that Haider was driving and shot him multiple times. Haider died on the spot.
His body was taken to the nearby Darul Sehat Hospital and was later shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for an autopsy. The family of the victim also reached the hospital and took the body for burial. The police have yet to register the case.
Though Haider was a resident of Karachi, he was posted to various jails in rural Sindh including Hyderabad, Larkana and Nara jails for the past several years. He spent the most time at Hyderabad jail, but he was transferred from this post nearly two weeks ago. He had also filed a petition at the Sindh High Court against out-of-turn promotions as several of his junior officials were promoted ahead of him.
He was known to be a strict jailer. "Everyone, even hardened criminals, was afraid of him," recalled one of Haider's colleagues at Hyderabad jail, adding that hundreds of inmates considered him as their enemy. "He was too aggressive an officer."
Crime scene
According to Sharae Faisal police, there were three women, named Shazia, Aqsa and Sehrish, in the car with Haider when he was targeted on Friday morning and one of them, Aqsa, was injured as well. Haider was going somewhere from his house in Gulistan-e-Jauhar's PIA Society, where he had moved recently from Garden.
"A young man came close to the car. He did not talk to Haider but just pulled out his gun and opened fire at him," said Shazia. The man, who was wearing trousers and a shirt, escaped after the shooting, she added. Haider was shot at least 16 times from point-blank range and the police have recovered the empty shells.
Not 'sectarian'
The officials investigating the case have ruled out the possibility that Haider was attacked due to his sect and hinted that he may have been targeted due to personal enmity. "We are investigating the case from two different angles," said Gulshan-e-Iqbal SP Abid Qaimkhani. "Firstly, the inmates who may want to avenge the treatment Haider meted out to them in jail. Secondly, it could be a personal enmity that somehow involves the three women who were in the car."
The officer said that Shazia recorded her statement with the police and said that Haider helped her get a divorce from her husband and she was currently living with Haider. Earlier, Aqsa told the police that she had no relations with Haider but later claimed that she was his second wife.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2015.