Police officer martyred in Orangi eatery shooting

A police officer has been martyred in what appears to be a targeted attack in Karachi’s Orangi Town neighbourhood. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police has registered a case against unidentified assailants under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

The attack happened in the early hours of Sunday, when two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) were waiting for their informer at an eatery in Gulshan-e-Bihar, which is located in Sector 16 of Orangi Town, within the limits of the Pakistan Bazaar police station.

FIR No. 75/21 has been registered under sections of murder and attempted murder as well as the ATA’s Section 7 at the CTD police station on the complaint of ASI Syed Zafar Hussain, who was with ASI Akram Khan at the time of the shooting.

Several cases of attacks on police officials in Karachi are still pending, including one such incident whose responsibility had been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, but law enforcers have failed to trace the whereabouts of the perpetrators despite the passage of a couple of years.

However, the CCTV camera footage of the Orangi eatery has taken law enforcers by surprise because in this brash attack the modus operandi of the assailant has been much different from previous such incidents.

The footage shows a heavyset man with a moustache and a beard, wearing a shalwar kameez as well as a scarf over his shoulder entering the eatery with a pistol in each hand.

After reaching near the policemen’s table, the suspect aimed both guns at ASI Khan and fired at him. After hitting the cop, the suspect also tried to shoot ASI Hussain, but despite firing multiple shots at him, the suspect missed his second target.

“I think that according to the CCTV camera footage, it was a targeted terrorist attack,” the CTD’s senior officer Raja Umer Khattab told The News. “Two weapons were used simultaneously. It looks like terrorism. However, no militant organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.”

The footage shows the suspect taking only a few seconds in carrying out his attack. After martyring ASI Khan, he also tried to attack ASI Hussain, but the cop was able to escape without a scratch.

The suspect can later be seen fleeing from the crime scene along with his accomplice, who had stayed outside the eatery waiting for him on a motorbike.

ASI Khan died on the spot. The sudden attack had not given him or ASI Hussain a chance to retaliate. Khan suffered two bullets, but the one he took to the head caused his death. His body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Following the incident, police officials reached the scene of the crime and collected eight empty shells of a 9mm pistol. They sent them to the forensic division to help with their investigation.

ASI Khan had been posted at the investigation wing of the Manghopir police station. Police said they were compiling the data on the cases Khan had been investigating.

They said that so far they had not found him investigating any case of terrorism, but he had been assigned 40 cases to investigate in the past six months and most of them were related to land grabbing.

Police also said that both the ASIs were at the Orangi eatery to meet an informer. “We’re looking for him,” said a senior officer. “Maybe the policemen were trapped. We’re also conducting geo-fencing.” The body of the deceased police officer has been sent to his home town Mansehra for his funeral and burial.