Korangi tense after PPP, JSQM leaders gunned down

Korangi tense after PPP, JSQM leaders gunned down

Four dead in attack on car; ANP supporter killed, Shabab-e-Milli activist injured in separate incidents

Karachi Much of Korangi Town and adjoining areas remained tense till late Tuesday night, after four political workers, belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaaz (JSQM), were gunned down in broad daylight. PPP leader Naseem Haider Baloch and JSQM activist Mohammed Bux alias Bachal were travelling along with their colleagues Mohammed Habib and Farman Ali. The car (ARY-556) the four men were travelling in belonged to Ali, a resident of Korangi Industrial Area, police said. As the four men approached Chota Park (near PNT Colony), unidentified armed men riding two motorcycles and a car opened fire at their vehicle and fled. Passers-by immediately shifted the injured to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where the four were pronounced dead. Baloch was a resident of Jumma Goth, and was the secretary-general of the local PPP unit. He was an employee of the Education Department, and has left behind a widow and two children. Bux was also a resident of Jumma Goth, and was the president of the local JSQM unit. Habib was Baloch’s friend, and was a resident of Korangi 2 1/2. He belonged to Faisalabad. Ali, a resident of D-430, Korangi 5 1/2, owned an estate agency. After the incident, senior police officers, including SSP Investigation East Zone-II Mohammed Farooq Awan, reached the spot and inspected the scene of crime. The police said that more than 45 empties, including those from Kalashnikovs and two other weapons, had been recovered. Hospital sources also confirmed that bullets from different types of guns were found from the bodies of the deceased. Further, the police said, the car was badly damaged. As news of the targeted killing of the four men spread, enraged supporters of the two leaders resorted to violence within JPMC premises, and damaged hospital property. They also lodged a protest on the main road outside the hospital against a rival political party, which they held responsible for the killings. When the bodies were taken back to Jumma Goth, aggrieved relatives and associates went on the rampage, with many also resorting to aerial firing. Shops in various localities of Korangi Town, Mehran Town, and Jumma Goth were also forcibly closed, the police said. The entire area remained tense till the filing of this report, while a heavy contingent of the Rangers and police were also deployed to control the situation. In a separate incident, a sympathiser of the Awami National Party (ANP), Raza Khan, was shot dead in Aligarh Bazaar, Orangi Town, while he was buying vegetables. Khan was a resident of the same area, police said. Violence erupted in Orangi Town following Khan’s murder, with armed men firing at a bus of the Z-4 route near Katti Pahari. Unconfirmed reports say that Noor Dad Khan son of Karam Dad Khan, a resident of UC-9, New Mianwali Colony, SITE Town, was killed in the incident. Armed assailants also opened fire at a mini-bus near Gul Bai Chowk; Danish and Mahfooz were injured in the incident. In yet another case reported on Tuesday, armed assailants barged into the house of a local Shabab-e-Milli leader, Azhar, in the jurisdiction of the Surjani Town police station. Surjani Station House Officer (SHO) Atif told The News that Azhar, his father Hanif (owner of an estate agency), and friend Riaz were present inside Azhar’s residence in Sector 7-D, Surjani Town, when three men barged into their house, and opened fire at them. Atif said that 9mm and TT pistols were used in the attack. The three men were shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), where their condition was reported to be stable. Two bullets each were removed from the bodies of the father and son, while Riaz was shot in the ankle. The SHO said that the suspects were trying to flee after the attack, but a patrolling police mobile followed them and managed to catch one of the suspects, Imran. One TT pistol was also recovered from his possession. Azhar’s brother, Mohammed Akhtar, lodged an FIR against Tahir, Safdar and Imran, the SHO said. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Abdul Jabbar alias Bolhri was shot dead on the Shah Waliullah Road in an incident reported in the jurisdiction of the Kalri police station. SHO Yousuf Baloch said that the deceased belonged to the Ghaffar Zikri group, and was a resident of Gul Mohammad Lane, Chakiwara. Jabbar was required in a number of cases, including two lodged by the Baghdadi police, two by the Chakiawara police, one by the old Napier police, as well as a case lodged in Baghdadi police station of opening fire and shooting a rocket on a police armoured personnel carrier.