KARACHI - A policeman was killed while another sustained bullet wounds when one of the vehicles of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqqiqi (MQM-H) chief Afaq Ahmed’s convoy came under armed attack in the Landhi area that also left a party activist injured, officials and party sources said on Saturday.
The MQM-H leaders insisted that the attack was carried out when Afaq was on his way to Hyderabad to attend a wedding function along with party workers when one of the vehicles leading the caravan was targeted near Landhi 89.
“The gunshots left three persons, who were traveling in a jeep, injured, including two policemen - Habibullah and Faisal Taimur,” Landhi Police Station SHO Mazhar Iqbal Awan, adding that the driver, Munawar Khan, also received bullet injuries.
They were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where 25-year-old Constable Faisal died of his wounds.
The SHO said the vehicle was used by the MQM-H chief and the victims were heading towards a fuel station before leaving for Hyderabad with the party chief.
But he denied the claim that the said vehicle was escorting any convoy of Afaq, saying some armed men targeted the lone vehicle.
The dead and the injured policemen were deployed to provide security to Afaq and originally posted at the Saudabad Headquarters, he added.
Later, Afaq Ahmed cancelled his all engagements and visited the JPMC to meet the injured.
During his interaction with media, he urged the Supreme Court to take notice of violence in Karachi and said peace still seemed a far cry despite the apex court’s verdict after suo moto action.
“It is a failure of the Sindh government,” he noted and added that the provincial government had put the life and property of a common man in danger for its own political gains.
Meanwhile, MQM-H Vice-Chairman Shamshad Ghauri told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club that the attackers wanted to eliminate Afaq and the police were distorting the facts to protect certain elements.
“We have conveyed our concerns to the authorities. They have been reminded that we are being victimised continuously,” he said, while warning that they would be compelled to taking extreme measures, if situation did not improved.