Two guards martyred in FBR office attack

Two men guarding the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Regional Tax Office (RTO) in Gulistan-e-Jauhar were martyred on Monday in what the recently reappointed city police chief claimed was an attack by the Ansarul Sharia Pakistan (ASP).

Gulshan-e-Iqbal SP Abdullah Memon said the two men were on security duty outside the RTO when four suspects on two motorcycles opened fire on them and sped away. He said 50-year-old Faqeera Ghunda Amal, hired as a sanitary worker, and 25-year-old Tanzeemul Huda, a private security guard, were taken to a nearby private health care facility and then to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for their autopsies.

However, before the bodies were shifted to the JPMC, Amal’s family took his body from the private health facility to the RTO to protest against the authorities for putting the sanitary worker on security duty.

JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali said the medico-legal examiner said in his report that the victims suffered multiple wounds to the head, neck and chest. “Tanzeem suffered six bullets and Faqeera three to their upper torsos.”

SP Memon said the FBR guards had uniforms similar to those of the Sindh police’s, but further investigation would establish if they were targeted by the group involved in attacks on law enforcers.

He said six guards were performing security duties at the RTO. “Two guards were stationed at the entrance checkpoint, three inside the office and one on the building’s roof,” he explained, adding that the assailants had not left any leaflet on the site of the attack.

Investigators collected nine spent bullet casings – five of 9mm and four of 30-bore pistols – from the scene of the crime. The forensic division confirmed that the weapons used in Monday’s incident were also used in the May 20 Dhoraji and the June 23 SITE Area attacks on police officials.  

ASP’s involvement

Karachi police chief Addl IGP Mushtaq Mahar said the bullet trajectory of the Dhoraji and SITE Area attacks matched with that of Monday’s attack, suggesting the ASP’s involvement. This was the ASP’s sixth attack in five months in the metropolis.

He lamented that a group of four men was attacking law enforcers, while Sindh’s police department, counter terrorism officials and intelligence agencies were trying and failing to trace them.

He confirmed reports that Monday’s victims were not appointed as FBR guards but were provided with weapons to perform security duty at the entry gate of the RTO.

He also validated reports that the guards were provided with out-of-order weapons, saying that the police were making efforts to take the investigation of the case to a logical end instead of blaming the FBR for their poor security system.  

Leaflets only clues

Counter Terrorism Department Sindh chief Addl IGP Dr Sanaullah Abbasi said the ASP had become the focus of all the investigation and intelligence agencies of the country. “Earlier, the group carried out one attack a month, but with the passage of time the frequency of attacks is increasing and the duration between the attacks is reducing, which is worrisome.”

He admitted that the law enforcers were yet to trace the whereabouts of the group’s members, adding that the investigators were carrying out forensic analyses of leaflets found on the sites of the ASP’s attacks, as they were the only clues they had.

“While every leaflet carries content that is different from the others, one thing is clear: the same group is involved in all the attacks.” Corroborating Mahar’s statement, Abbasi said that apparently four to five members were seen in the footage of the CCTV cameras installed at the sites of the ASP’s attacks.

Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair expressed grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of the guards, directing the law enforcement agencies to bring the culprits to book. Sindh police chief IGP AD Khowaja directed the East Range DIG to immediately submit a detailed inquiry report and the steps taken by the police to solve the case. The FIR of the attack was registered at the CTD police station late in the night.