Four bodies found in rainwater-filled pits, drains

KARACHI: As heavy rains stopped falling on Tuesday after a four-day intermittent spell, at least four bodies including that of a teenage girl and a six-year-old boy were found in rainwater-filled pits and storm-water drains in different areas of the city, officials and charity volunteers said.

The body of the girl aged between 13 and 15 years was found in a rainwater-filled pit near Banaras Chowk. She was believed to have drowned at least a day earlier.

Her body was moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital before being shifted to the Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth for want of identification.

In New Karachi police found the body of a young man in a huge pond, formed by the recent rains. The dead was later identified Tahir.

“The body was found in Khameeso Goth. We reached the spot after a call from the area police,” said an official at the Chhipa Welfare Association that recovered the body and shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

An hour later the body of another young man was found in a storm-water drain in Ayub Goth within the remit of the Sohrab Goth police station. The victim was identified as 26-year-old Irfan.

A six-year-old boy was found dead in a storm-water drain in Akhtar Colony.

The deceased, identified as Osama, had left home in Kashmir Colony on Sunday evening amid heavy rains to play outside but never returned.

Sectarian killing

A man in his late 50s was gunned down near Baloch Colony on Tuesday in what appeared to be a fresh incident of targeted killing on sectarian grounds, officials said.

They said 58-year-old Agha Abib Shirazi was targeted near the Duty Free Shop along Sharea Faisal by a single gunman on a motorbike when he was leaving for his office after a stopover at a friend’s place.

“He was driving a car down a busy commercial area to land onto Sharea Faisal from the service lane,” said an official at the Ferozabad police station. “All of a sudden a man riding a motorbike came close to him, forcing Mr Shirazi to pull the brakes. The gunman then pulled out a 9mm pistol and fired multiple shots at him.”

The victim sustained at least three bullets and died on the spot, said an official, adding that the people around saw a man accelerate the two-wheeler towards one of the narrow lanes connecting the service road.

“Initial investigations found the attacker alone with no apparent support by anyone else,” said SSP Amir Farooqi of the Ferozabad police station, who suspected a sectarian motive behind the killing.

The deceased was associated with the construction business. He was the father of a son and three daughters. Resident of Muhammad Ali Cooperative Housing Society, he was also the brother of a trustee of the Azakhana-i-Zehra Trust, Agha Asghar Shirazi.

The incident came as a grim reminder of the multiple targeted killings on sectarian grounds that kept the city under fear till early July before the assassinations on ethnic and political grounds began.

Allama Abbas Kumaili of the Jafria Alliance Pakistan condemned Mr Shirazi’s murder and questioned the role of the security administration.

“For the last seven months targeted killings on sectarian grounds have continued unabated,” he said in a statement. “We have demanded an operation against the banned outfits, but unfortunately the government doesn’t seem interested in it. Not a single suspect of targeted killings has been arrested so far.”

The recent wave of targeted killings on sectarian grounds reemerged earlier this year that has claimed nearly 30 lives. Killings of political activists and on ethnic grounds remained a separate challenge for the law-enforcers to handle as it has seen nearly 200 people losing their lives this year alone.

Though the investigators claimed to have ‘found a few clues’ to determine the appearance of the attacker on Mr Shirazi and recovered casings of spent bullets of the 9mm gun used in the attack, fears run high ahead of Ramazan and religious leaders see it as a conspiracy to spark sectarian unrest mainly in the holy month.

“This is high time to show solidarity and unity so that we meet the challenge of terrorism together. But at the same time it’s the prime responsibility of the people at the helm of affairs to move before it’s too late.”