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Targeted killings sow fear in Karachi

Paramilitary personnel stand alert to cope any untoward situation on eve of funeral prayer of PSF leader Sohail Khattak.—ONLINE

KARACHI: Tension and panic gripped parts of the city on Saturday after the early morning killing of two people in separate attacks, sparking a wave of ethnic strife in certain localities.

Attendance in several government and private offices remained thin as a large number of people chose to remain indoors, with relatively few public transport vehicles plying the roads as well.

The otherwise busy commercial and shopping centres in the city wore a deserted look, while the shopkeepers in troubled localities did not pull up their shutters.

Witnesses said that localities including Banaras, Qasba Colony, Metro-ville, Pahar Ganj, Aligarh Colony, Sultanabad and Shah Faisal Colony, and parts of North Karachi and North Nazimabad towns were the worst affected.

The capital city police chief, Waseem Ahmed, told Dawn that the situation had ‘improved to a great extent’ and the police had ‘intensified patrolling in the affected areas’.

‘The tension is defusing and the situation will be eased out very shortly,’ he said. The witnesses said that the situation near Qasba Colony turned violent following an attack on a car in the area that left a young man dead and four of his relatives wounded.

The Pirabad police said that the victim, Gulbadin, a cloth merchant and resident of Islamia Colony in Orangi Town, was on his way back to his home after attending a marriage function when at around 2am unidentified attackers opened fire upon his vehicle.

They said that the cloth merchant was killed instantly and his relatives – Ahmed Gul, son of Mustafa Khan, Mohammad Anver son of Zarghun, Obaid Umer, son of Haji Noor Mohammed, and Ramzan, son of Ismail – were wounded in the attack.

The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the victim received two bullets, one in the chest and the other in the abdomen, from a very close range and the bullets pierced through his upper torso.

The police said that the wounded victims were shifted to a nearby private hospital, where they were stated to be in a stable condition.

Tension and panic gripped parts of Orangi Town and Qasba Colony as the two localities echoed with the sound of heavy gunfire following the attack.

Later, four attackers on two motorcycles arrived at the Quetta Bolan Hotel, a restaurant at the Hussainabad food street in Azizabad, at around 4am and opened fire on its owner, Muzaffar Khan, son of Abdul Mannan.

The police said that the attackers fled after carrying out a swift operation. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed hospital for a post-mortem examination before it was handed over to the victim’s family.

The police said that a case (FIR 332/2009) was registered against unidentified culprits under Sections 302 and 34 of the PPC on the complaint of the victim’s younger brother, Abdul Nafay.

They said that the victim’s relatives later took away the body to their hometown in Pashin, Balochistan. In apparently related incidents of violence, at least six people received bullet wounds and were shifted to different hospitals.

Sources at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital told Dawn that three young men with bullet wounds were brought to the facility. They said that the victims, identified as Sardar Alam, Azizur Rehman and Saeed Alam, were injured in a firing incident in Orangi Town.

The North Nazimabad police said that two young men were shot and wounded by unidentified motorcyclists near Abdullah College. They said that the wounded men, residents of Pahar Ganj, were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.
 
A 23-year-old man was shot and wounded at Aligarh Colony in a separate incident. He was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he was identified as Abid Ali, son of Abdur Rauf.

Two vehicles were partially damaged when unidentified miscreants set them on fire in Shah Faisal Colony, which also remained in the grip of tension and fear. The vicinity wore a deserted look and most of the shops there remained closed.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony, two localities off Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan Road (Queen’s Road) when the funeral procession of an ANP worker was taken out from his Sultanabad residence.

Dawn:By Tahir Siddiqui Sunday, 26 Apr, 2009