School principal shot dead

Karachi

Armed men roamed the city streets for yet another day on Wednesday and targeted three people, including a former UC Nazim and a school principal, in separate incidents.

Syed Ali Haider, 55, was gunned down when two armed men on a motorcycle sprayed his car with bullets from sophisticated weapons outside his residence in Sector 11/A of North Karachi in the Sir Syed Town police area.

The victim’s family and residents of the area took the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities. An MLO said the deceased suffered at least five bullets wounds to the upper body.

SP New Karachi Syed Salman told The News that Haider was the owner of the Lal Qilla Grammar School and also the principal of the same institute. He added that the deceased was a member of the Arts Council and was also a candidate for president of the council.

He suspected that the victim was murdered in a targeted attack.

Former UC Nazim killed

Mahmood Ahmed Barkati, 87, a Hakeem and former UC Nazim was gunned down by two armed men who barged into his clinic near the Taleem-e-Bagh situated in the FB Area. The victim was gunned down with an automatic weapon and the assailants managed to flee on their motorbike.

The dispenser of the clinic, after hearing the shots, rushed to the doctor’s room and saw the body lying in a pool of blood.

The police were immediately informed and they shifted the corpse to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

An MLO said that Barkati had been shot three times in the upper body.

SP Gulberg Amir Farooqi told The News that the deceased was killed in a targeted incident. Apart from being a Hakeem, the victim was a noted writer and had authored more than 24 books. He also wrote some 500 columns in different newspapers. Barkati, the police confirmed, was also a former UC Nazim from the Jamaat-e-Islami.

MQM activist shot dead

Thirty-five-year-old Syed Muhammad Shakeel, an MQM activist, suffered bullet wounds when two armed motorcyclists sprayed him with bullets from an automatic weapon while he was riding his own bike near Sector 11-1/2 of Orangi Town in the Iqbal Market police jurisdiction.

The rescue team was called to take the body to the hospital, but the injured man breathed his last on the way to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

It was found that the victim had been shot four times in the upper part of the body. A mobile van of the Iqbal Market police reached the spot some 20 minutes after the incident and found the empty shells of 9MM bullets from the scene of the crime.

The police confirmed that the murdered man was an MQM activist and was targeted in this incident. As news of his death spread in the area, miscreants came onto the streets and forcibly ordered shop owners to close their businesses.

Altaf condemns killing

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief has expressed grief over the murder of Ali Haider, the owner of Lal Qila Grammar School. In a statement issued from London on Wednesday, Altaf Hussain termed the killing a conspiracy to provoke sectarian strife in Karachi.

Terrorists are gunning down innocent people according to a planned conspiracy to push the city into the flames of sectarian violence and bloodshed, he added.

He appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to take notice of Haider’s murder and bring the killers to book.

He expressed his sympathies for the bereaved family members, and said their grief was equally shared by the workers and office-bearers of the MQM.

Posted in: Karachi News