Sectarian & ethnic attacks?: One killed in Gulberg, 3 in New Karachi

Faraz Khan Published: January 30, 2012 Taseer Abbas Zaidi was killed in FB Area Block 20 when two men on a motorbike open fired on him. KARACHI: A wave of killings continue to plague Karachi, as another man from the Shia sect was targeted in the limits of Gulberg Police Station on Monday. Taseer Abbas Zaidi was killed in FB Area Block 20 when two men on a motorbike open fired on him. He was the brother of noha khawan Raza Abbas. The deceased will be buried at Wadai-e-Hussain. Tension gripped the area immediately after the incident and unidentified men forced shopkeepers to close their stores in Ancholi and the Water Pump areas. Shara-e-Pakistan is also reported to be blocked. Protestors also blocked the media and targeted media personnel. They were present on the Ancholi side of the Sohrab Goth bridge and members of Pashtun community were on the other side. Protestors clashed with the security forces deployed in the area. Police fired shots into the air and arrested 20 men. Booths under the bridge and a bus were also set on fire during the protests. The city has been under the grip of sectarian and political violence during the last couple of weeks, with the death toll standing at above 20 in the month of January. In another act of targeted killing, 59-year-old Jaffar Mohsin Rizvi, alias doctor, the son of Syed Baqar Rizvi, was gunned down in Gulberg on Saturday. Three men killed in New Karachi attack Three men were killed on Monday when unidentified men opened fired at their vehicle in New Karachi. The men were fired upon outside Pir Bazaar near Powerhouse roundabout in North Karachi. SHO Ilyas Shah of Bilal Colony police station, who immediately reached the spot, said that three men were sent to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in an injured condition. However, they succumbed to their injuries while being moved to the hospital. The dead were identified as Adnan, a resident of New Karachi, Nizamuddin alias Adil, a resident of Orangi town and Irfan alias Shahrukh. SP Chaudhry Asad though told The Express Tribune that the men belonged to the MQM. However, he refused to confirm whether this was an ethnic attack. “Investigations are still underway,” he said. Police has set up a cordon at the scene of the crime. Shops in the area have been closed following the incident. Reports of tensions from New Karachi, North Karachi, Nazimabad, FB area and Nazimabad have been received. Read more: shiakilling , targetkilling =============== Karachi under Attack By Imran Hussain - Jan 31st, 2012 (2 Comments) 8 After some peaceful days in recent months of bloodshed in Karachi, we are again watching the breaking news coming from different parts of the city about the targeted killings. Innocent men, women and youth of my great city are being targeted on ethnic and sectarian basis by unknown assailants riding on motorcycles. These mass murderers have so much organized field intelligence from different neighborhoods of Karachi that they choose the time and place to kill according to their need and convenience. They are targeting people of Karachi and enjoying this killing spree as if they are eliminating the enemies of Pakistan or allies of India. As these different killer groups or mercenaries target the engineers, doctors, lawyers, intellectuals and educated class of Karachi, they have one agenda in common which is to keep the political voice of Karachi under extreme check. This is an open war imposed on the city of Karachi by the powerful elements who loves to work under the shadows of their own created monsters. Their master plan is very simple, hit and run and force the people of Karachi to run away for their safety by leaving the houses and neighborhoods on the disposal of these powerful elements. It is nothing but an organized massacre of the people of Karachi under the umbrella of imposed banned sectarian and externally funded ethnic groups who have no support within the masses. These groups are freely running their operations in Karachi to disturb the law and order situation. They have asked their handlers not to worry about the funds anymore as they have become more capable of generating their own funds. Some of these groups are targeting the owners of big industries, some are collecting the extortion money from small traders and few have chosen the bank robberies as the easiest way to produce their resources. The sudden increase in target killings, kidnappings for ransom, grenade attacks on the shops of small traders and successful bank robberies in recent months are very visible signs that the port city and financial hub of Pakistan is under attack. Forces which have no stakes and nothing to lose in Karachi are just using this city as the launching pad for their attacks inside and outside the city. Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives have been captured from Karachi who were planning attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan and who can forget the attackers responsible for Mumbai massacre in November 2008. They used Karachi, the financial center of Pakistan as their plan and execute center to infiltrate into the city of Mumbai and carried out the worst attack on India’s financial capital. The lawlessness and violence in Karachi have now transformed from domestic into the international dimensions with more horrifying results. Banned sectarian and militant organizations like Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Lashkar-e-Taiba have sleeping cells in Karachi who are awakened by the handlers on their chosen time and desire. Similarly, the extortion mafia, land grabbing mafia, drug and arms mafia is using the flags of different political parties to run their illegal business in the city of Karachi. These organizations and gangs are supporting each other in different parts of the city to establish their rule and dictate the terms to the common Karachiite. The agenda and role of Al-Shams and Al-Badr in East Pakistan was similar to the ones being carried out by the extremist, sectarian and militant organizations in Karachi. They were assigned the responsibilities to target the most educated class in East Pakistan and we are seeing the same phenomenon in the city of Karachi. 40 years have passed since the disintegration of Pakistan but our ruling elite and their powerful allies are repeating the same mistakes to conquer the hearts and minds of people with the use of force, cache of arms and ammunition. The faces of terror are aligned with each other to disfigure the liberal, moderate and progressive face of Karachi. They should not forget that Karachi is not an orphan city but millions of people take the ownership of Karachi with the political stakeholders on the ground ready to defend their beloved city from this act of war. =================