KARACHI - Around a dozen people were wounded in a clash between rival sectarian groups for the possession of mosque here in SITE area on Monday while a college professor was target-killed. As many as six decomposed bodies too were found from different areas of the city.
A group of people entered the Jama Masjid Rabbani in Frontier Colony of SITE area and attacked the members of the Masjid committee and worshipers with sticks and batons. The attackers later managed to escape on their motorcycles.
The injured were moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medical treatment. they included Maulana Zaheer, Maulana Khan Muhammad, Maulana Haroon Rasheed, Ismail, Suleman, Ahsan, Asghar, Abdul Basit, Omar and Zubair.
Police said that the incident came as a continuation of a dispute as two rival sectarian groups wanted to appoint their own prayer leader in the mosque. They said the mosque was sealed due to the same dispute about two months ago but later reopened after the two sides reconciled.
No case had been registered but SHO Fasihuz Zaman said that police have been deployed at the mosque to avoid any further violence.
On the other hand, an assistant professor of the Government College of Technology (GCT) was attacked and killed while his assistant was wounded as unabated target killing of professionals continue in the city.
Police said 50-year-old Prof Saifuddin Jafri, son of Muhammad Sharfuddin Jafri, was targeted near Gharibabad intersection within the limits of Sharifabad Police. The deceased was on his way to Civic Centre in his car along with his assistant Shakeel when the attack came.
Police said the gunmen on a motorcycle sprayed his car with bullets and managed to flee the scene. Jafri and his assistant sustained multiple injuries and were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced Jafri dead. His assistant had critical wounds and he was admitted to the hospital.
DSP Wajahat Hussain said Jafri could have been targeted on sectarian ground because his name suggested he might be a Shia, though he was a Sunni in fact. Scores of teachers, students and relatives gathered at the hospital after they came to know about the incident. The body of the deceased educationist was handed over to the family after autopsy.
Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association’s Karachi President Prof Firozuddin Siddiqui said that the authorities should take a serious notice of the killing of educationists, intellectuals, lawyers and doctors in this city. The way the high professionals were being killed would have devastating impact on country’s future.
Security agencies claim to have apprehended over 15,000 alleged criminals and killed over 100 others in encounters during the ongoing targeted operation in the city, but killing of doctors, professors, lawyers and other professionals continue. More than a dozen other educationists have been target killed in last couple of years while over 115 doctors had also been gunned down in a decade.
Police claims to have busted numerous groups involved in sectarian killing over the years but conviction in all such cases is very rare. City police chief Shahid Hayat recently pointed finger at a certain political party declaring it to be behind the ongoing spell of sectarian killings but police has been unable to substantiate its claim with evidence.
Separately, bodies of the four men clad in shalwar kameez were found from the bushes in Dhabeji locality, located over 50 kilometres from Karachi. The bodies were later moved to a Sohrab Goth morgue for identification after completion of medico-legal formalities at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Police officials said that all the victims were killed after kidnapping. SHO Raja Tariq said that unidentified culprits after kidnapping the victims, who were in their mid-30s, tortured them badly before shooting them multiple times. No case had yet been registered.
Two more decomposed bodies were found from different areas of the city – one from the Quaidabad mobile market and the other from Ilyas Goth, within Ibrahim Haideri Police remits. Bodies were shifted to morgue for identification after autopsy.