Two army men martyred in Karachi terrorist attack

Bikers fired at army vehicle near Saddar parking plaza; PM condemns killings; vows not to let terrorists derail operation for peace in city; directs interior ministry and Sindh govt to hunt down culprits

KARACHI: Terrorists gunned down two military personnel in a gruesome attack that occurred in the heart of the city on Tuesday afternoon.

Lance Naik Abdul Razzaq and Sepoy Khadim Hussain were targeted opposite the Parking Plaza in Saddar within the Brigade police jurisdiction.

Officials said the attack appeared to have been carried out by a banned organisation but it was too early to confirm the involvement of any specific group.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the army personnel and vowed not to let the terrorists derail the ongoing operation to purge the city of such elements. He directed the Ministry of Interior and the Sindh government to hunt down the perpetrators. “We will not allow the terrorists to derail the ongoing operation for the restoration of peace in Karachi,” the prime minister said in a statement released by the PM’s Media Office.

Soon after the double murder, officials of the law enforcement agencies, including Additional IG Karachi Mushtaq Mehar, DIG Munir Shaikh of the South Range, Counter-Terrorism Department Sindh Incharge Raja Umer Khattab, arrived at the scene.

Talking to The News, DIG Munir Shaikh said the injured army personnel were immediately shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where they succumbed to their injuries.

Army personnel Razzaq and Khadim Hussain were visiting the area in an official vehicle for some official work when two terrorists riding a motorcycle opened fire from behind their vehicle, wounding both the personnel, he said.

The DIG added that information about the incident was being gathered by using technical assistance and statements of eyewitnesses. He said the law enforcers did not find any spent bullet shells from the scene of the crime. He said they were trying to develop the CCTV footage from the camera installed in the adjoining area.

A spokesman for the Karachi Police said in a statement that they had recorded the statements of some witnesses and, according to them, two persons riding a motorcycle carried out the shooting.

The statement further stated that a forensic analysis of the army vehicle, which had been fired upon by the attackers, had been carried out, and a special investigation team of the police was conducting the investigation.

A separate team headed by a DIG rank police official was also constituted to investigate the incident. The police spokesman said that the culprits behind the incident would be brought to justice soon.

Talking to the media, JPMC Director Seemin Jamali said one of the personnel, Abdul Razzaq, was brought in dead, while Khadim Hussain succumbed to his injuries during treatment. She said Lance Naik Razzaq received bullet wounds to the head and upper torso, and Sepoy Khadim Hussain suffered bullet wounds to his head, chest and shoulder.

She added that the bodies of the martyred personnel were moved to the PNS Shifa along with an MLO, where postmortem examinations were conducted.

Officials said Lance Naik Abdul Razzaq was married and left behind a widow and two daughters. He was from Naushero Feroze, and Sepoy Khadim Hussain was also married and hailed from Dadu.

Talking to The News, CTD In-charge Raja Umer Khattab said that the terrorists had attacked the armed forces’ personnel from the left side of the vehicle and at the time of the shooting the windows were closed. Both the personnel had been shot in the head.

Khattab said that they had not found any spent bullet shells from the scene of the crime, but it seemed that the culprits had used a 9mm pistol in the offence.

He suspected that the terrorists might have followed the army personnel before attacking them. The official said that the vehicle that was in the use of the personnel hit a wall, which was 20 metres away from the place where they were targeted.

Khattab said that initially investigations also revealed that the terrorists were roaming in the area randomly and when they spotted the army personnel, they targeted them. He added that there was a similarity between Tuesday’s shooting and the one that left two Military Police personnel dead on December 1, 2015, on the MA Jinnah Road. He said it seemed that the same group was involved in the latest attack. 

Tuesday’s attack was the fourth of its nature, as earlier a similar attack was carried out on a Preedy Police mobile in which terrorists lobbed a chemical bomb killing three cops. A few months after that, three more policemen were killed at the same place. On December 1, 2015, two soldiers of the Military Police were killed in the Preedy police limits.

APP adds: Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information Broadcasting & National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the army personnel in Karachi.

In a statement the minister said that such cowardly acts of terror can never weaken the resolve of the nation in the fight against militants and miscreants.

“Our valiant soldiers are laying down their lives to take out terrorists and tear down their evil networks,” he said. “They are sacrificing their today to secure our tomorrow,” he added. Their sacrifices, the minister said, in the war against terrorism and for the cause of establishing peace would not go to waste. The minister said he shared the deep grief and sorrow with the families of those who were martyred in the incident.