MULTAN, July 28: Siddiq Khan Kanju, the former minister of state for foreign affairs, and former MPA Mohammad Aslam Joiya were shot dead by four assailants at Kehror Pucca, 100km from here in the Lodhran district, on Saturday evening.
A candidate for the Lodhran district Nazim, Kanju and his companions were at a corner meeting outside a barber shop of a labour councillor, Mohammad Jameel, in Karim Bazaar when a white Toyota Corolla car (MNY-4375) stopped there at 5.55pm.
The driver remained on his seat as three men, who, according to some witnesses were in their early 20s, got out of the car and opened fire at Kanju with automatic revolvers. As Kanju and Aslam Joiya fell, the attackers shot and injured Dr Akbar Kanju, a cousin and brother-in-law of Siddiq Kanju, who was sitting in a jeep parked nearby. The assailants also shot and injured Sheikh Riaz Iqbal, a former vice-chairman of the Kehror Pucca municipal committee, when he tried to overpower one of them. The assailants then fled in their car, taking the Circular Road.
Kanju died on the spot and Aslam Joiya succumbed to injuries on way to the civil hospital. Akbar Kanju and Sheikh Riaz were shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, for their serious condition. An official at the Kehror Pucca city police station told Dawn that bodies were handed over to their heirs after an autopsy. Kanju's body was later sent to his ancestral Alipur Kanju village.
Scion of Mohammad Ameen Khan Kanju, an MLA of the Ayub period, Siddiq Kanju entered the political arena in 1977 to contest on a provincial assembly seat from the PNA platform but then he could not make his mark as the alliance had boycotted the elections. He was entrusted with the portfolio of state minister for external affairs by the then premier Nawaz Sharif.
No clue to Kanju's killers
MULTAN July 29 2001: No clue was found to the killers of former foreign minister Siddiq Khan Kanju and former MPA Major (retd) Aslam Joya till Sunday evening. Kehror Pakka police said no case had been registered with the police as the aggrieved families were busy in burial arrangements.
Punjab Police IG Asif Hayat, terming the killings a terrorism, said a special team headed by Multan CIA SP Syed Javed Ali Shah, had been constituted to trace and arrest the culprits as soon as possible. He said attackers had used the car bearing a fake numberplate and investigations revealed that the said number was allotted to a motorcycle.
Malik Asif Hayat said: "The incident seems to be an act of sabotage and according to the preliminary guess, no political element was involved in it." He added that a comprehensive security plan was being prepared to provide security to the candidates participating in the district and Tehsil Nazim elections in the province following the recent killings.
SP Syed Javed Shah is currently investigating the case, however, no special investigation officer has been appointed to probe the case as yet, police sources said. People of the area told The News that it is very necessary to study the political and sectarian atmosphere of the region to ascertain the motive behind the killings.
People of the area said four persons -- Azhar Khan Joya, his one friend, Sardar Shah (Nasir Rizvi's cousin), and Kehror Pakka Bar Association President Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah -- were shot dead some years back on the same road where Kanju and Joya were gunned down on Saturday, but their killers have not been arrested as yet. A complete strike was observed in Kehror Pakka to mourn the murder of Siddiq Kanju and Aslam Joya on Sunday. Shops remained closed and the Kehror Pakka Anjuman-i-Tajran has announced a three-day mourning in the city.
Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Mohammadmian Soomro on Sunday termed the killings a tragic incident. At the Multan airport, before leaving for Alipur Kanju, the ancestral village of Muhammad Siddiq Kanju, to pay his condolences to the bereaved family, he said the Punjab police were investigating the matter and hoped that it would soon yield results.