Renowned persons killed in Karachi

LAHORE: Persistent lawlessness in Karachi has now claimed the life of renowned Qawwal and singer, Amjad Hussain Sabri, who is unfortunately the latest addition to the list of celebrated Pakistanis killed in this mega port city.

Here follows a list of renowned academicians, widely-acclaimed religious leaders, key officials of national law-enforcement agencies, eminent bureaucrats heading top public and private institutions, foreign diplomats, important judicial personalities, philanthropists, human rights activists, businessmen, journalists, political and social personalities who fell prey to the unrest in Karachi during the last 23 years or so:

In 2015, Dr Syed Wahidur Rehman, an assistant professor of the University of Karachi was murdered by merciless target killers and terrorists in Karachi. Professor Wahidur Rehman’s murder occurred just a few days after a celebrated female activist Sabeen Mahmud was gunned down in cold blood.

A research by the Jang Group and Geo Television Network reveals that on September 18, 2014, Dr Shakil Auj, Dean of the Islamic Studies Faculty of the University of Karachi, was killed in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area.

On September 10 2014, a known local religious cleric, Maulana Masood Baig, who was associated with the prestigious Jamia Binoria Aalimiyah, was gunned down in city’s Haideri area.

On September 8, 2014, Ali Akbar Kumaili, elder son of former Senator Allama Abbas Kumaili, was apparently killed on sectarian grounds outside his ice factory located in Azizabad area.

On February 27, 2014, noted religious scholar, Allama Taqi Hadi Naqvi, was gunned down.

On January 9, 2014, a high-ranking Pakistani Police official SSP Karachi Crime Investigation Department, Chaudhry Aslam Khan,, had embraced martyrdom in the line of duty.

On June 21, 2013, a provincial Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmaker Sajid Qureshi and his young son were assassinated at a juncture when both Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and MQM were striving hard to bury their differences.

In June 2013, a bomb targeting the convoy of the then Sindh High Court judge Justice Maqbool Baqir (later elevated as chief justice Sindh High Court and a sitting Supreme Court judge since February 2015) had exploded near Karachi’s Burns Road area. At least nine people were killed in this incident. The honourable judge luckily survived despite sustaining serious injuries. Justice Baqir’s head was hit by ball bearings and glass shards in the explosion. The deceased included seven policemen, one Rangers personnel and Justice Baqir’s driver.

On May 18, 2013, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Senior Vice President Zahra Shahid Hussain was assassinated outside her house in Karachi Defence.

On March 13, 2013, Parveen Rehman, a leading social worker in Pakistan and head of the Orangi Pilot Project was shot dead.

It was also in March 2013 that renowned industrialist Ali Asghar Rajani was killed in SITE area of the city.

On January 16, 2013, another MQM legislator in Sindh Assembly, Syed Manzar Imam, was killed by six unidentifiedgunmen in Karachi’s Orangi Town area.

On January 9, 2013, a famous private school owner Engineer Syed Ali Hyder Jafri was killed in Sector 11-A of North Karachi. The police had described this incident as a “sectarian attack.”

On October 12, 2012, a local reporter Ali Raza (working for a local Urdu newspaper, Janbaaz) was killed in Lyari area.

On May 28, 2012, SP Shah Mohammad was also killed in Karachi. SP Shah Mohammad had taken part in the Karachi operation during the 1990s against a political party. While he was serving as an SHO, he was also nominated in the murder case of MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s brother and nephew.

On January 1, 2012, Askari Raza, leader of a Shia political organisation “Pasban-e-Jaferia,” breathed his last in a sectarian-motivated target killing by two armed men. He was critically injured on the New Year’s Eve. At least 15,000 Shia protesters had then staged a sit-in outside the Sindh Governor House on the first day of January to protest the assassination.

In 2011, a Saudi diplomat, identified as Hassan M Al Kahtani, was shot by at least four gunmen riding two motorcycles near the Khayaban-e-Shahbaz locality.

On January 31, 2011, one security guard and a woman were killed when unknown terrorists had opened fire inside a Telenor franchise in the Nazimabad area.

On January 18, 2011, a regional sales officer at a Warid Telecom franchise outlet in Karachi, Ahsan Kamal, had died when two armed men entered the store and attempted to loot it.

On January 13, 2011, Geo Karachi reporter Wali Khan Babar was killed in Liaquatabad.

On August 1, 2010, an MQM MPA Raza Haider was shot dead in the Nazimabad area. Raza Haider was reportedly in Nazimabad to attend the funeral of a relative when six unidentified gunmen opened fire at him.

On July 14, 2006, Allama Hassan Turabi, a key Shia religious scholar and chief of Tehreek-e-Jafria Pakistan and his 12-year-old nephew were killed in a suicide attack near their Abbas Town residence.

On June 15, 2006, unidentified gunmen had killed a senior prison official, Amanullah Khan Niazi and four others in Karachi.

On April 11, 2006, over 50 people, including prominent Sunni (Barelvi) scholars, were killed in a bomb explosion at a religious gathering celebrating the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in Karachi’s Nishtar Park.

On March 2, 2006, a powerful suicide car bomb attack in the high security zone near the US Consulate in Karachi killed four people, including a US diplomat David Foy. This was just a day before the then American President George W Bush was to land in Pakistan.

On May 30, 2004, a senior Deobandi religious scholar and head of Islamic religious school, Jamia Binnoria, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, was gunned down in his car while leaving his home in Karachi.

On June 10, 2004, gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying the then Karachi Corps Commander Lt Gen Ahsan Saleem Hyat, leaving 11 people dead. The corps commander had escaped unhurt though a few of his security staffers lost their lives in the incident.

On October 3, 2003, six employees of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) were killed when their official van was fired upon on Hub River Road in Mauripur, Karachi.

On May 8, 2002, a bus bombing in Karachi killed 11 Frenchmen and three Pakistanis near the Sheraton Hotel.

According to USA Today, the bomb had ripped through a Pakistan Navy bus as it was picking up the French nationals from the Sheraton Hotel. The French engineers were maintaining submarines for the Pakistani government. Members of the touring New Zealand cricket team, who were staying at the Pearl Continental Hotel across the street, remained safe but authorities back home in Wellington immediately called off the tour.

On March 4, 2002, one of the country’s most well-renowned nephrologists, Dr Alay Safdar Zaidi, was assassinated in Karachi.

On February 22, 2002, a renowned American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi by al-Qaeda activists.

On October 10, 2001, the Sindh Karachi Sindh Board of Technical Education Chairman, Syed Hassan Zaidi, was gunned down in Karachi.

On July 30, 2001, Syed Zafar Hussain, director research and development in the Ministry of Defence, was also killed in a target killing incident in the metropolis.

On July 26, 2001, Managing Director Pakistan State Oil, Shaukat Raza Mirza, was killed in a targeted killing incident in Karachi. Mirza was from Shia community.

On December 21, 2001, the then Pakistani Interior Minister, Lt Gen (R) Moinuddin Haider’s elder brother, Ehteshamuddin Haider, was shot dead by assailants near Soldier Bazaar in Karachi.

On October 17, 1998, former Sindh governor and an eminent philanthropist, Hakim Muhammad Said, was assassinated. His murderers were later caught by the then DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi, CCPO of Karachi. Several MQM workers were arrested and subsequently sentenced to death on this charge by an Anti-terrorism Court.

On July 5, 1997, Malik Shahid Hamid, a former managing director of the KESC, his guard and driver were killed by the death-row target killer Saulat Mirza. Saulat Mirza was later awarded death sentence and hanged. 

On September 20, 1996, late premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s son and the then incumbent Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s younger brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, was allegedly killed in an encounter with police near his Clifton Karachi residence.

Mir Murtaza was killed along with six other party activists. Among the dead was Ashiq Jatoi, the acting provincial chief of the Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto Group). Jatoi was brother-in-law of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a former caretaker prime minister of Pakistan.

On June 10, 1996, a retired Sindh High Court judge, Justice Nizam Ahmed, and his son Advocate Nadeem Ahmed were shot dead in front of their PECHS Karachi residence. The killings were attributed to a dispute over a prized plot near Awami Markaz as Justice Nizam Ahmed had opposed its commercialisation and illegal allotment.

In December 1995, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain’s 66-year old elder brother Nasir Hussain and his 28-year old nephew, Arif Hussain, had also met painful unnatural deaths in Karachi.

As newspaper archives reveal, Nasir Hussain and Arif were arrested by the law-enforcement agents on December 5, 1995. MQM officials had then stated that the two gentlemen killed were kept in a safe house, where they were brutally tortured for four days.

The father and son were reportedly killed on December 9, 1995 and their corpses were discovered from Gadap Town area of Karachi.

On December 6, 1996, Mohammad Samdani Warsi (business manager of Urdu daily, Parcham) was killed in the city.

On December 4, 1994, Muhammad Salahuddin (Editor of Urdu weekly Takbeer) was shot dead outside his office.

On May 1, 1993, the then MQM Chairman, Azeem Ahmed Tariq, was murdered by unidentified gunmen at a safe house in Federal B Area of Karachi. Late Azeem Ahmed Tariq’s murder remains a mystery to this day.