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Eight gunned down in Karachi
[Dawn] At least eight people, five political activists among them, were bumped off in different areas of Bloody Karachi on Wednesday as murders remerged in full fury, prompting fresh fears among people that the scourge is beyond the control of political and security administrations in the province.There was no word from key officials in the provincial set-up about government efforts to put an end to the bloodshed as corpse count swelled to 15 in three days of violence. However, The emphatic However... police officials claimed that efforts were being made to stop the menace from spreading to so far unaffected parts of the city. In the deadliest incident on Wednesday, four men on two  cycle of violences attacked a group of four people in Sector 10 of Orangi Town, killing three of them on the spot and leaving one severely injured.The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) claimed that the victims were its activists. "The gunnies fired on them when they were sitting at the corner of a street popularly known as Mohajir Chowk," said SP Khurram Waris of Orangi Town. "They decamped after the firing, leaving 24-year-old Waqas Tariq, 44-year-old Zaheer Hanif and 38-year-old Habib Rafiq dead. Another man, Muhammad Irfan, sustained a bullet wound in the abdomen and survived." The incident sparked panic in the locality and traders closed of their shops. Transport disappeared from the streets in densely populated neighborhood. A large number of MQM activists and leaders of the party went to the hospital to offer condolences to the family and fellow workers. The MQM, which is a coalition partner of the PPP-led provincial government, demanded immediate arrest of the killers and swift measures from the federal and provincial authorities to curb the new cycle of violence. "Armed hard boyz have been given a free hand to target MQM workers and over the past 24 hours some seven party activists have been killed," an MQM statement said. The Orangi incident triggered violence in New Bloody Karachi where a bus driver was rubbed out near Saba Cinema. "The driver has been identified as 53-year-old Barkatullah. He was a resident of Malir and originally hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa," said an official at the New Bloody Karachi Industrial Area cop shoppe. A few minutes later, more than half a dozen gunnies on four motorbikes attacked a restaurant on the University Road near Old Sabzi Mandi, killing a 45-year-old man who was there with friends. The victim was identified as Chaudhry Saqib Nadim. But some people attacked the assailants and killed one of them and injured another, said an official of the New Town cop shoppe. The injured suspect was later handed over to police. Earlier in the day, tit-for-tat killings claimed the lives of an Awami National Party (ANP) activist and an elderly member of MQM in New Bloody Karachi area. The two incidents took place in Ayub Goth, a poor neighbourhood between Super Highway and New Bloody Karachi. "In first incident, 26-year-old Hazrat Ali alias Hero was intercepted by two men on a motorbike near Street No 1 of Sindh Cooperative Housing Society in Ayub Goth area," DSP Iftikhar Lodhi, the area's supervisory police officer (SPO), said. Ten to 15 minutes later, gunnies on two cycle of violences attacked 60-year-old Shahbaz alias Shabbu. He had a poultry shop in the area and was said to be associated with MQM. The fresh wave of violence coincided with the presence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. in the city. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-15 |
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