Two Dawoodi Bohra men shot dead, another injured

Two Dawoodi Bohra men shot dead, another injured By Our Correspondent Published: November 5, 2012 Pall bearers carry the caskets of two brothers, who were shot dead in Hyderabad late Saturday night, to a graveyard. Recently, the Dawoodi Bohra community has come under a spate of targeted attacks especially in Karachi, where two bombs went off in a Dawoodi Bohra neighbourhood on September 19, killing at least eight people and injuring several others. PHOTO: INP HYDERABAD: Two Dawoodi Bohra community members were shot dead and another was injured in separate attacks in Hyderabad on Saturday. The victims, identified as 42-year-old Murtaza and 60-year-old Shabbir, were gunned down by unidentified assailants near the Cantt police station. Later, Murtaza’s brother, Hatim, was also targeted by attackers, while he was on his way to the hospital to see his brother, City police said. While police suspect the attack to be motivated by personal enmity, investigators have yet to ascertain the actual reason behind the attacks. The victims’ families and the community representatives are tight-lipped about the matter. “The brothers were targeted one after the other in separate attacks in separate places,” a police officer said. “Terrorist attacks [religious or sectarian] are indiscriminate, but this one appears to be calculated.” At the Civil hospital, where the victims were taken, doctors said that Murtaza and Shabbir were shot in their faces and foreheads while Hatim was shot in the right side of his abdomen. The community and the family are both clueless as to who killed them and why, said Shaikh Muslim Hakeem, the head of Hyderabad’s Dawoodi Bohra community. Murtaza hardly earned a few hundred rupees a day by selling samosas and pakoras while Shabbir was a worker at the Jamaat Khana. The community representatives met SSP Hyderabad Pir Farid Jan Sarhindi at Cantt police station but Hakeem did not say who will be nominated in the FIR. The case has not been registered yet. An eyewitness to the attack, a dry fruit seller, said that he could not see the faces of the two attackers who fled on a motorcycle. He has also given his statement to the Cantt police. Murtaza lived in a small apartment with his wife and a four-year old daughter. Shabbir was single and lived alone. A year ago, Murtaza had lodged a complaint with Cantt police station against a man accusing him of attacking after barging into his house, a police source told The Express Tribune. The details of this attack were, however, unclear as the police did not comment on the matter and the community was also reluctant to divulge any information. The markets in Bohri Bazar, Wadu Wah Road and Burhani Nagar areas were closed on Sunday as the funeral of the victims was held at the Bohra Jamaat Khana. Over half a dozen police mobiles were deployed in Bohri Bazaar to provide security to the people attending the funeral. Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th, 2012.

Rush hour terror: 8 dead as twin blasts rip through Karachi market

By Shaheryar Mirza Published: September 19, 2012 Relatives of blast victims arrive at a hospital following the bomb explosions. PHOTO: AFP KARACHI: Eight people were killed and twenty four injured when two improvised explosive devices ripped through a quiet Bohri community centre in quick succession in the Hyderi area where just one month ago another bomb had been found and defused. The first bomb, planted next to a tree and triggered by a remote-control device, went off at 7.30 pm behind Dolmen Centre, according to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) West Akram Naeem Bharoka. The bomb was planted just a couple of hundred metres from the area’s Bohri Jamaat Khaana and people were returning from their prayers at the time of the first blast during rush hour. As people fled towards the middle of the street where food vendors, shops and flats are located, the second bomb planted in a motorcycle went off — causing the bulk of the casualties.

“This is where we eat, where we chat, where we meet at night. The bomb went off right next to an ice cream vendor and at that very time a young girl was buying an ice cream cone from there,” Mohammad Mustafa, a resident of the area told The Express Tribune.

According to the DIG, both explosive devices had approximately three kilogrammes of explosives in it and were filled with ball bearings. “What is extraordinary is the high density of pellets used in these blasts. There were at least five to eight kilogrammes of pellets in each bomb, which is something we don’t usually see. It was a high-intensity blast,” Bharoka revealed. The walls of the surrounding buildings were pockmarked from the pellets up to the third and fourth floors with some holes easily measuring four to five inches in diameter. The motorbike that was used in the second blast had been traced by the police and belonged to Hanif, a resident of Lines Area. Police sources added that the bike had been stolen from its owner last month in Rizvia but authorities had failed to complete the FIR. Most residents of the area – predominantly Bohris – were in shock. “These people keep to themselves and don’t have a conflict with anyone. They don’t say anything against Shias or Sunnis,” a resident told The Express Tribune. “But it is clear that they were targeting the community.” DIG Bharoka confirmed that most of those dead and wounded belonged to the Bohri community and that “this was a clear case of them being targeted” but the officer did not provide any motive as to why this was the case. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah also took notice of the incident and sought a report from IG Sindh. Bharoka said the blasts shared similarities, in structure of the bomb and the techniques used, to the explosion that took place near the Chinese Consulate in Clifton late July and said the two incidents might be linked. Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain strongly condemned the bomb blasts and expressed grief on the deaths and injuries caused. He termed the incident “a blatant act of terrorism”. He said that terrorist elements wanted to create confusion in the country by giving way to uncertainty in Karachi. He offered condolences to the grieving families and demanded serious action against the perpetrators from the government. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik ordered the formation of a joint committee to investigate the twin blasts. According to a press release, the committee would be led by the Karachi Police IG. Rangers and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) representatives will be part of it. Malik directed the FIA to send their teams to the locations and collect evidence. Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.