Two shot dead in Karachi
09-02-2001
KARACHI, Feb 9: Unidentified assailants shot dead two men near the Askari Mosque-cum-Imambargah in block no 9 of Federal 'B' Area late on Friday night. The names of the deceased were Abbas Ali, 35, and Imtiaz Husain, 35.
The killing took place at a time when the senior military and civil officials were holding a meeting with the Ulema on sectarian peace and harmony in the city. The meeting ended about one and a half hours after the killing.
The Ulema attending the meeting condemned the recent killings. The meeting also decided that all those who were arrested as precautionary measure after earlier killings would be released.
Meanwhile, there are differing eyewitness accounts of Friday's killing. According to some people, Abbas Ali and Imtiaz Husain were sitting at a computer centre near the Askari Mosque when two men on motorcycles opened indiscriminate fire on them.
Abbas Ali and Imtiaz Husain were shifted immediately to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the doctors pronounced them dead. Tension mounted after news of the killing spread rapidly throughout the city.
A spokesman for the TJP said to Dawn the latest killing was particularly unfortunate as it came at a time when the government was talking of sectarian harmony. Meanwhile, to reduce the tensions a 10-member committee was formed on Friday night. The scholars met in the Sindh Secretariat, with the Chief Secretary Javed Ashraf Hussain in the chair. The GOC, Maj-Gen Ehtesham Zamir, and other high-ranking civil and military officers attended the meeting.
The committee comprises: Maulana Saleemullah Khan; Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzi; Haji Muhammed Hanif Tayyab; Maulana Shah Turabul Haq Qadri; Maulana Abdur Rehman Sulfi; Prof Hafiz Muhammed Sulfi; Maulana Syed Hasan Zafar Naqvi; and Allama Kumaili.