Target killings continue: MQM-H worker, two others killed

Three more men gunned down in the city, bringing the death toll to nine in two days.

KARACHI: Three more men were gunned down in the city on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to nine in two days.

One of the victims, 25-year-old Sajjad, son of Dulhe Mian, belongs to the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) unit 83 in Landhi. He received one bullet in the head in Sector 36-B, Bukhara Industrial Area. He was a resident of Sector 4-A.

The body was sent to Jinnah hospital and later handed over to the family after legal formalities. Inquiry officer ASI Safdar Butt said the deceased was also a member of a gang of bandits and they are looking into the cases registered against him in the past. The police have yet to register a case for the murder.

In another incident, a factory worker was shot dead in Jauhar Colony, within the jurisdiction of Pak Colony police station. The 28-year-old victim, Raza alias Sona, son of Shamshad, belonged to an Urdu-speaking family. The police said they have yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder.

His body was moved to Civil hospital for an autopsy and later handed over to the family. Pak Colony police have filed the case against unidentified men on the complaint of the victim’s brother, Aziz.

On Tuesday morning, unidentified men gunned down 30-year-old Gul Muhammad, son of Muhammad Urs, near Gujjar Nullah, within the jurisdiction of Sharifabad police station.

According to DSP Taufeeq Khan, the incident took place when unidentified suspects opened fire at a truck and later escaped from the site. The victim was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, Khan said. He added that the deceased hailed from Larkana.

The police have registered FIR No. 2/11 against unidentified persons on the complaint of truck driver, Ali Akbar, he added.

Funeral

Members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) who were targeted and killed on Monday were buried on Tuesday amid tight security.

MQM Nazimabad joint sector incharge Syed Adil Akhtar Jaffery was shot dead near the party’s inquiry office while ANP’s al Falah vice president Aziz Khan and another activist, Tariq Khan, were killed in al Falah a few hours before Jaffery was shot dead.

Jaffery’s funeral prayers were offered at Rizvia Imambargah and he was buried in Yasinabad Graveyard near the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero. Party leaders, workers and the victim’s relatives attended the funeral.

The funeral prayers of ANP members were offered late Monday night in al Falah. Aziz Khan was buried at Jamia Millia Malir Graveyard while Tariq Khan’s body was sent to his hometown for burial.

Panic gripped Nazimabad, Gulbahar, North Nazimabad, Surjani Town, Paposh Nagar, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Sachal, Abul Hassan Isphani Road, Malir, Landhi and other areas. Fortunately, no major incident was reported in any part of the city during the funeral prayers and burial but the police and Rangers were put on high alert.

‘80 suspects arrested in target killing cases’

The men arrested in connection with target killings are simply criminals and criminals are not affiliated with any political or religious party, said Sindh IG Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak.

He said that the police arrested 80 suspects in target killing cases in 2010. Meanwhile, police in the city has been put on high alert after Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassination, he told media after the inauguration ceremony of a police hospital at the Garden police headquarters. The suspects were interrogated by joint investigation teams and then presented before the courts, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2011.