 Two gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a leading Sunni Muslim scholar and his bodyguard yesterday in Pakistan's restive southern city of Karachi, police said. "Maulana Haroon Al-Qasmi and his guard have been killed in an ambush," city police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP, describing the victim as a noted scholar.
| Oh! I'm just devastated! Poor Haroon! |
Dozens of angry youths went on the rampage after hearing the news. The rioters attacked a police post, ransacked several shops and burnt tires on roads, witnesses said.
"We have reports of a few violent incidents after the murder. The situation is under control now," Jamil said. Paramilitary rangers had been called in to control the violence.
| "After they tapped a few turbans things settled down quick enough..." |
Witnesses said Qasmi and his guard were sitting in their car after leaving a mosque where he used to lead prayers in the downtown Tariq Road area when the two men sprayed them with bullets before fleeing.
They died on the way to hospital, Jamil said.
"Hang on, Haroon! We're almost there!"
"Rosebud!"
"Kill the siren, Mahmoud! And stop at the chicken stand. I'm hungry!" |
The outlawed Sunni militant outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan(SSP) said Qasmi was one of their activists.
| Now he's a defunct activist of an outlawed Sunni militant outfit... |
"He was a good lawyer and chief of our legal team, which is fighting cases of our workers in the courts," said SSP spokesman Qari Mohammad Shafiq. Qasmi's father Maulana Ishaq Al-Qasmi was shot dead at the same place in 2003, Shafiq said.
| Sounds like a family tradition... |
President Pervez Musharraf banned SSP in January 2002 but it re-emerged under a new name of Millat-e-Islamia. SSP leader Maulana Azam Tariq, also an MP, was assassinated in Islamabad in October 2003.
| To jubilation among some of us... |
The murder of a Sunni cleric before the holy Islamic month of Muharram has raised fear of sectarian clashes. "It is a conspiracy to ignite sectarian clashes in the city," said Allama Hasan Turabi, a Shiite cleric.
| Uhuh. And where were you on the morning of the 30th, Hasan? |
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