Karachi-A day after the Sunni cleric Maulana Qayyum was shot dead, another leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) or Sipah-e-Sahaba was gunned down in New Karachi on Wednesday.
Police said 55-year-old Saleem Khatri was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Sector 5-G area of New Karachi. After the incident, police and rescue teams arrived on the scene and took the injured man to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Khatri became the second religious leader to be killed in two consecutive days. Earlier, a Sunni cleric Maulana Qayyum affiliated with Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat was shot dead in a targeted killing in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area.
Meanwhile, police launched an investigation and recovered seven empty 9mm pistol rounds from the scene. Aftab Abbasi, the SHO Bilal Colony police station, said the incident was not a street crime but a targeted killing. He said Khatri was attacked a day after the assassination of Maulana Qayyum, who was shot dead in a targeted killing in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. The SHO said the killings could be aimed at escalating sectarian violence in the city, especially ahead of the holy month of Ramazan. He also said the police were looking for CCTV footage and other evidences. Khatri, Karachi-based ASWJ leader and local legal advisor, was targeted on the way to his ASWJ headquarters in Nagan Chowrangi.
Meanwhile, the ASWJ strongly condemned the incident and called on the government and law enforcement agencies to immediately arrest those responsible for the incident.
ASWJ spokesperson Umer Muavia said this was a targeted killing intended to escalate sectarian violence in the city ahead of Ramazan.
Muavia advised the party workers to remain calm in the situation and not to get involved in what he called the conspiracy.