KARACHI Sep 12 2001: A religious scholar and his young sons were gunned down in a targeted attack on Wednesday by unidentified terrorists in Defence Housing Authority.

According to police and witnesses, Allama Razi Hyder, 55, was going to Habib Public School on Maulvi Tameezuddin Road, along with his sons, Abbas Hyder, 11, and Mohammad Ali, 13, from his home in Defence Housing Authority's Phase IV, when their car (ACW-950) was attacked at the traffic signal of Submarine Chowk.

The witnesses told the police that four to five terrorists travelling in a car stopped their vehicle parallel to the car of Allama Razi Hyder and opened indiscriminate fire. They continued to fire for some minutes and fled. The vehicles moved in a haphazard manner soon after the firing began and some of the vehicles ploughed into each other.

Allama Razi Hyder and his son, Abbas Hyder, suffered multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot. His elder son, Mohammad Ali, received a bullet to his head and was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where the doctors declared his condition as serious. He was later shifted to a private hospital. He later died.

Allama Razi Hyder was a teacher at the Habib Public School. He was also the Pesh Imam of Yasrab Masjid-o-Imambargah in Defence Housing Authority, Phase IV. His sons studied in the Habib Public School, the police and sources close to the family said.

The law-enforcement agencies reached the spot and cordoned off the area, after the killing. The vehicular traffic remained suspended at the spot for an hour.

A senior police official said: "The incident appears to be sectarian-motivated." He, however, said that a thorough inquiry would be carried out to ascertain the exact motive of the killing.

The police have failed to find a clue to any of the killings carried out by the terrorists in the current month, even though special investigation teams were formed to solve the cases.

Hearing of two murder cases against the workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi
27-05-2004

An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of two murder cases against the workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi on the request of the defence counsel.

Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, fixed June 1 for the next hearing after an application seeking adjournment was placed before him.

Defence counsel M. R. Syed informed the court that he was engaged before a bench of the Sindh High Court and sought adjournment. One of the cases pertained to the murder of a pesh-imam of an imambargah and his son on Sept 12, 2001. Two LJ men - Ataullah and Mohammed Azam - have been charged with the sectarian killing.

Syed Razi Haider Najafi, the pesh imam who was also a teacher at a school, and his 15-year-old son Syed Abbas Ali were killed and his youngest son, Syed Mohammed Ali, was injured around 7:45am when the accused, riding a bike, opened fire on their car near Submarine Chowrangi in Gizri.

The second case pertained to the killing of Kazim Hussain Jafferi on March 21, 2002, in an attack on his vedio shop in Mehmoodabad. Ataullah and Riaz are facing the charges.

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Lashkar-i-Jhangvi activists get death penalty
6-7-2004

KARACHI, July 6: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the Anti-Terrorism Court No. 5 on Tuesday awarded death penalty to three workers of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in five sectarian murder cases.

Ataullah, Mohammed Azam and Mohammed Riaz stood quiet behind the bars as the judge announced the verdict inside the Central Prison around 1pm. The judge also ordered confiscation of convicts' properties worth Rs500,000 each in every murder case.

Ataullah, already condemned to death in several other sectarian murder cases, was sentenced to death in all five murder cases, while Mohammad Azam, a co-accused in four cases, was awarded death penalty in three cases as he was acquitted in one of the cases.

The same accused were also found guilty of having killed another Pesh Imam of an imambargah and his son on September 12, 2001 in Gizri.

Syed Razi Haider Najafi, the pesh imam, who was also a teacher at a school, and his 15-year-old son Syed Abbas Ali were killed and his youngest son, Syed Mohammed Ali, was injured around 7:45am when the accused, riding a bike, opened fire on their car near Sub-marine Chowrangi.

The judge also sentenced them to suffer a 10-year rigorous imprisonment for injuring the Pesh Imam's son. They were ordered to pay Rs50,000 as Diyat to the injured.

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