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.
MQM's former MNA gunned down in Karachi
MQM's former MNA gunned down in Karachi
- Ali Raza Abidi was a prominent political figure
- He resigned from his party but continued to tweet in its favor
Gunmen kill two cops in Pakistan’s restive northwest
- The policemen were killed in separate incidents in Tank and Lakki Marwat districts of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- No group immediately claimed responsibility for killings, which come a day after police killed eight militants in Karak district
PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot dead two policemen in separate incidents in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, police said, amid a surge in militancy in the province bordering Afghanistan.
In the first incident, gunmen abducted Sajjad Hussain, a police constable who was traveling home on leave, in KP’s Tank district and later shot him dead, according to district police spokesman Younus Khan.
“The martyred constable, Sajjad Hussain, was posted at the Nasran checkpoint,” Khan told Arab News. “He was intercepted, forced off his vehicle, and shot on Shah Alam–Nasran Road by militants.”
Another policeman, Assistant Sub-Inspector Mumtaz Ali, who was posted in Tank, was shot dead by gunmen in Pezu area of the nearby Lakki Marwat district, according to the Tank district police spokesman.
“The officer, who was posted in Tank, was on his way to his duty station when assailants intercepted his vehicle, forced him out, and opened fire, killing him on the spot,” Khan added.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killings, which come a day after police killed eight militants in KP’s Karak district.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP in recent years. Militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have frequently targeted convoys of security forces, police stations and check-posts besides kidnapping government officials in the region.
Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing its soil and India of backing militant groups, including the TTP, for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied this.
