Father of four slain in front of children

Victim of sectarian attack was dropping off kids at school in Soldier Bazaar

With ruthless assassins roaming the streets and eliminating their targets regardless of the risk of collateral damage, yet another father was gunned down in front of his children, this time, near the Aga Khan Jamaat Khana in the Soldier Bazaar police limits on Tuesday.

Imran Abbasi, 35, was shot dead when unidentified people riding a motorcycle sprayed him with bullets from an automatic weapon as he was dropping his kids to school. The gunmen managed to flee after the incident, while locals who heard the gunshots rushed to the scene and found the victim’s children standing over the bloodied body and weeping.

A mobile van of the Soldier Bazaar police took the bullet-riddled corpse to the Civil Hospital for legal formalities. Police said that Abbasi was the father of four children and resided in the same area where he was attacked.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer Jamshed said that the victim was a member of the Shia community and murdered in a sectarian attack. As news of his death spread, armed men came onto the streets near Rizvia Society and started firing in the air. A group of gunmen also barged into a shop and opened fire at Abdul Qayyum and Safdar Hussain, leaving both men injured.

Later, law enforcers rushed to the spot and controlled the situation.

Alarming trend

In some of the recent attacks that took place in the city, especially those of a sectarian nature, children were also caught in the line of fire, proving that the assassins, while going after their targets, were willing to eliminate anyone or anything.

In a late Sunday night incident, unidentified men opened fire at a car, killing a man and his minor daughter near Ayesha Manzil. The target, Asghar, was driving with his two daughters when the gunmen ambushed the vehicle and opened indiscriminate fire.

The killers achieved their objective of eliminating Asgar, but his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Zainab, also died in the attack. His other daughter, Dua, just 10 years old, suffered bullet wounds as well.

The November of last year saw yet another innocent man being killed in a similar attack. On the 30th of that month, Syed Nazar Abbasi, and his daughter, 12-year-old Syeda Mehzar, were heading to the Al-Murtaza School when two men pulled up on a motorbike and opened fire. The case was initially highlighted by the media, and Mehzar was likened to Malala Yousufzai, for they were both young girls — the first going to school, the second coming back from school — but then it gradually disappeared, mainly because the family was not ready to talk.

The condition of the victim was critical for weeks after the attack as a bullet had ruptured both her lungs, another damaged her spinal cord and a third skimmed past her wrist.

Posted in: Karachi News