Bookshop owner, son gunned down in apparent robbery

A man and his son were gunned down at their bookshop in Korangi in the early hours of Thursday. The Zaman Town police said Muhammad Hussain, 70, and Asad Abbas, 43, were severely wounded after they were shot at the Prince Book Depot.

Police said the victims were being taken to a hospital in Korangi, but they succumbed to their injuries on the way, adding that their bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The CCTV camera footage of the incident shows four men on motorbikes arriving at the bookshop, shooting at the man and his son over resisting the attempt to rob them, then escaping with a bag containing cash.

The older victim’s eldest son Abid Hussain filed a police complaint against the unidentified suspects. He said his father was the president of the Imambargah Darbar-e-Zainabia in Korangi, while his brother was the general secretary.

“My father and my brother also run a bookshop in the Korangi No. 2 area, where unidentified suspects entered and killed them,” reads the FIR of the incident. Though the CCTV camera footage suggests that the incident was robbery-related, the complainant told The News that he suspected it to be a sectarian attack.

“Sometimes they come with the intention to kill, but then also leave with some valuables or cash,” claimed Hussain. “They [the killers] seemed to be professionals.” He pointed out that this was not the first such incident to have occurred in the area, saying that an Imambargah’s trustee and his son were earlier killed in separate incidents, adding that the incidents were initially termed muggings, but it was later revealed that they were killed on sectarian grounds.

“If the police investigate the case properly, every doubt will be cleared,” he asserted. He said his father and son’s funeral prayers would be offered after the Friday prayers at the Shah-e-Najaf Imambargah on Martin Road in Jamshed Quarters.

Police said that they have registered a case, and that they are investigating the incident from different angles in the light of the CCTV camera footage and the complainant’s claims.