KARACHI: Just two days after the killing of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) workers in this seaside metropolis, unknown assailants gunned down Ali Raza Abidi, a former Member of National Assembly (MNA) and a prominent political figure who remained associated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), here on Tuesday night.
Abidi, who was thought to be quite close to Dr. Farooq Sattar, was fatally shot when he came out of his residence at Khayaban-e-Ghazi in Defense Housing Authority (DHA), SSP South, Pir Muhammad Shah, told Arab News.
The official said that Abidi was shot in his head and neck and succumbed to his injuries at PNS Shifa hospital during his treatment.
The dead body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center for autopsy. Former chief of MQM-Pakistan, Dr. Farooq Sattar, condemned Abidi’s killing.
Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah also condemned the murder and ordered the police chief to prepare a report on the incident.
Abidi, who was one of the most vocal Pakistani political personalities on Twitter, was elected an MNA on MQM’s ticket in the 2013 general elections, but he resigned in November 2017, only a few days after his party, MQM-P, announced to form an election alliance with PSP for 2018’s electoral contest. He re-joined his political faction but left it again in September 2018, though he continued to support it through his Twitter messages.
Abidi was gunned down on a day when MQM’s founder, Altaf Hussain, was booked for the murder of two PSP workers.
Muhammad Azhar, a PSP worker belonging to Karachi’s Nazimabad neighborhood, was killed on the spot whereas Muhammad Naeem succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital after three unidentified gunmen entered the party’s office on Sunday night and opened fire on people who were sitting inside, Syed Fahad Hussain, the plaintiff who was also wounded in the shooting incident, said in the First Information Report (FIR) of the event on Tuesday.
“The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s founder Altaf Hussain has been booked in the case under Section 302 and on terrorism charges,” Nawaz Brohi, a police officer, told Arab News.
“Two trained killers carried out shooting within ten seconds and escaped,” In charges counter Terrorism department Raja Umar Khattab told Arab News, adding Abidi was attacked with 30 bore pistol at the door of his house.
Khattab says the killer had a cap so couldn’t be clearly identified.
“It seems to be the result of internal fighting between MQM factions,” Khattab said, expressing fears of more attacks and violence in Karachi in the coming days.