Investigators see no links in target killings taking place in Karachi in 2023

KARACHI: At the time when people are frequently killed in Karachi for offering resistance during robberies, the menace of target killings has also seemingly returned. So far during the current year, four professional persons have been murdered in target killing incidents in the city.

The slain men include two religious scholars, a doctor and an educationist. An attempt was also made to murder a builder but he fortunately missed the attack.

Of the four target killings that took place during February and March, the police investigators claimed to have solved two of the cases. In the other two cases, there are unverified reports that some suspects have been arrested but there has been no official disclosure of those arrests.

The killings

The first target killing took place on the night of February 26 in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area where armed motorcyclists shot and killed educationalist Khalid Raza. The 55-year-old victim was the vice-chairman of the Federation of Private Schools Pakistan and also a deputy director of the Darul Arqam Schools.

He was shot in the head outside his home in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Police described the incident as a targeted attack. The victim came out of his house and was walking towards his car, which was parked nearby, when two armed men on a motorcycle appeared and opened fire on him.

Less than four weeks after Raza’s murder, a Sunni Ulema Council (SUC) leader was shot dead in the same Gulistan-e-Jauhar area on March 21.

Maulana Mufti Sufi Abdul Qayyum Naqshbandi was attacked by unidentified motorcyclists in Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block 9. He was the incharge of the Madrasa Noorani Islamic Centre in the area. Armed suspects shot him in the head outside his house, killing him on the spot.

A day after Naqshbandi was gunned down, another Sunni cleric was targeted in New Karachi on March 22. Saleem Khatri, who had been serving as the law adviser for the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat’s Sindh chapter, was shot dead outside his house near New Karachi Sector 5/G. Two suspects on a motorcycle shot him dead as soon as he came out of his house.

A few days later on March 30, former Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) senior director of health and eye specialist Dr Birbal Genani was shot dead by unknown assailants in the port city.

Dr Genani was heading to Gulshan-e-Iqbal from Ramswami along with his assistant lady doctor when unidentified armed men targeted their car near the Garden interchange of the Lyari Expressway.

The ophthalmologist died on the spot and his assistant sustained bullet injuries. Since Dr Genani was a doctor and he belonged to a minority community, it was initially suspected that he was targeted to create unrest among the minorities as well as the doctors’ fraternity.

No links

Officers of the law enforcement agencies now believe that there were no links between the four target killing incidents. “It has so far been confirmed that these high-profile cases of target killings of professionals have no links with each other and all these crimes were committed due to different motives,” a senior police officer told The News.

“It is clear that the targeted killings of Dr Birbal Genani and Mufti Abdul Qayyum Naqshbandi were a result of personal enmity while foreign links are believed to be behind the killings of Saleem Khatri and Khalid Raza,” the officer added.

The police have announced the arrests of suspects involved in the killings of Dr Genani and Naqshbandi. There have been reports that suspects involved in the killings of Raza and Khatri have also been taken into custody by intelligence agencies, but there has been no official disclosure so far in this regard.

Investigations

After Raza’s murder, a nationalist party of Sindh claimed the responsibility of the attack. However, the investigation team probing the educationist’s target killing also suspect the involvement of foreign elements as Raza had been vocal and passionate about the Kashmir cause.

So far, no major headway has been achieved in the case.

After killings of Naqshbandi and Khatri, who belonged to two different Sunni schools-of-thought, in two days, it was initially suspected that the killings were a conspiracy to create religious discord in the city. However, as the investigators solved the former’s case, they found a land dispute to be the motive behind the murder.

To the public surprise, a police officer was named as the key suspect in Naqshbandi’s murder. As the police managed to trace and arrest the target killers, they disclosed in the interrogation that a police intelligence officer, Muhammad Ateeq, had paid them to kill the cleric because he ran a madrasa in front of the house of the police officer who had objections to that madrasa.

It was also reported that Ateeq was also taken into custody by an intelligence agency but no intelligence or law enforcement agency has disclosed his arrest so far.

In the case of Khatri’s killing, two suspects allegedly belonging to Zainabiyoun, a foreign militia, were reportedly taken into custody by an intelligence agency. However, there has been no official disclosure of any such arrest.

In the killing of Dr Genani, the case took an interesting turn after the slain doctor’s brother accused his assistant Quratul Ain, who was also injured in the attack, of her involvement in the killing. Later, the investigators took her and her former fiancé into custody.

It was revealed that Dr Genani had been working with Quratul Ain for 10 years and had expressed interest in marrying her. The motive behind the killing is now believed to be a personal grudge against the doctor.