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Federal interior minister’s warning proves useless?:
SSP legal adviser shot dead
By Faraz Khan
KARACHI: The central legal adviser of the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and former general secretary of the party’s Sindh chapter, Hafiz Ahmed Bux Advocate, and his driver were shot dead in an attack near the SSP leader’s home, located at Model Colony, on Wednesday evening.
The attack spread panic among people and tension gripped various localities in the city. Shopkeepers pulled down the shutters of their shops and vehicular traffic disappeared from the streets, as unidentified men started riots and aerial firing.
Fifty-five-year-old Bux was near his house, when unidentified men sprayed his double cabin vehicle with bullets. As a result, he and his driver, Nasir, sustained bullet injuries.
The SSP leader died shortly after the incident and both the victims were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where Nasir also succumbed to his injuries. The SSP man was shot from a very close range, as most of the bullets were able to pass through his body.
According to eyewitnesses, there were three attackers on motorcycles and they also had some men serving as back up in a white coloured car. A CCTV camera was installed in the area where he was assassinated but due to the suspension of the power supply, no footage could be recorded.
Supervisory Police Officer of Saudabad, DSP Farooq Sher Zaman, told Daily Times that the attackers used 9mm pistols in the attack, as the police recovered around 24 rounds of weapon from the crime scene.
The officer said that the incident took place shortly after the deceased left Masjid-e-Ibrahim, located in the same area, where his brother, Abid, was the prayer leader. “Of course, it was a target killing and we believe that the culprits shot him after they followed him,” the DSP added. The officer also confirmed the affiliation of the victim with the defunct SSP and said that presently the deceased was SSP’s central legal adviser.
SSP central leader Maulana Ghafoor Nadeem ,while talking to Daily Times, condemned the incident and said many of his party’s men, including leaders and workers, have lost their lives in separate incidents of target killings but the government and the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) were not taking any reliable action to stop such incidents. He said that the deceased was a senior member of the party and was the former general secretary of Sindh and Karachi as well.
In reply to a question, the SSP leader said he had no knowledge about the deceased receiving any death threats prior to the incident.
Riots: Angry people burnt tyres on different roads of Model Colony and its adjacent areas to record their protest over the killing. They also pelted stones on passing vehicles and aerial firing was reported in various parts of the city, including Model Colony, Saudabad, Nagan Chowrangi, Lines Area and others, which suspended routine and commercial life. No case was registered at the time this report was filed.
Shady record: A top CID official, on the condition of anonymity, told Daily Times that the slain SSP man had played a vital role in sectarian violence in the 90s. He was involved in over a dozen cases, including high profile target killings of Shia people, police officials and attacks on imambargahs, including the Mehfil-e-Murtaza Imambargah, located in PECHS Society, and the Abdul Fazal Abbas Imambargah, located in PIB Colony. He was also involved in an Iranian engineer’s murder.
In 2003, he was released from jail on the court’s directives after an imprisonment of at least ten years.
The official said in 1994, the slain SSP legal adviser killed almost 16 members of two separate families, who lived in a residential building at Tariq Road. One of the families belonged to the Shia sect, while the other family was Sunni, but they were killed under the mistaken belief that they were Shias. He also killed a police official and four of his brothers in the Buffer Zone area.
No stop to target killings: It should be noted here that at least four people, including a MQM councillor, were killed on Tuesday, and now the SSP leader has been murdered. These killings have occurred despite Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s warning on Tuesday that target killings would not be tolerated and strict action would be taken against those responsible for them. The target killings have not come to a stop and have in fact taken a turn for the worst.
Daiy Times:Thursdsy,July16,2009
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