Another KU professor gunned down

Karachi
Karachi lost another academician on Wednesday when six men riding motorcycles gunned down Dr Waheed-ur-Rehman, 42, an assistant professor at the University of Karachi’s at mass communication department and a journalist, in Federal B Area.
Police said Rehman had left his home in the morning and heading for the university in his car when around 500 metres away from his residence in Block-16 of Federal B Area, six men riding three motorcycles intercepted him near the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases and fired gunshots at the professor.
Rehman, who also used to write in Urdu daily Ummat under the pen-name Yasir Rizvi was alone in his car at the time.
“The attackers were wearing masks and helmets first shot twice at his car to stop him,” SSP Central Noman Siddiqui told The News.
“Then one of them approached the professor and shot him several times at pointblank range,” he added.
Rehman was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. His body was handed over to his family after an autopsy.
So far, police are unsure as to what could have been the motive behind the murder.
Many teachers, administrative officials and students of the University of Karachi and the Federal Urdu University of Science and Technology as well as journalists rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital after learning about the incident and moving scenes were witnessed there as many people were seen weeping.
Police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir said the professor had suffered five bullet wounds to the face, chest, abdomen and hand.
Police investigators found 12 empty bullet shells of 9mm pistols at the scene, six of them inside the professor’s Cultus No AEQ-241.
A police official, requesting anonymity, said the assailants, after shooting Rehman, also fired at a witness who was standing nearby. However, that person left the scene.
“Police are searching for the injured witness at hospitals and clinics. There are other witnesses who have described him for us,” he added.
Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo said the case was being investigated from different angles.
“He [Rehman] was associated with Daily Ummat, which can be a motive for the murder,” said Thebo. “He was also associated with Prof Dr Shakeel Auj, who was gunned down in Karachi in September last year, and currently teaching at the University of Karachi,” he added. “So far we haven’t come across any concrete lead but we are working on it and soon the killers and their patrons will be in our custody.”

Protest
Students of different departments and faculties of the University of Karachi blocked the University Road to protest against the professor’s murder.
They criticised the law enforcing agencies for their failure to protect the city’s academicians.
One track of the University Road remained closed for vehicular traffic for several hours.

Case registered
The Yousuf Plaza police registered an FIR No 38/2015 against unidentified attackers on the complaint of Rehman’s cousin, Pervaiz Ahmed Samdani,
Many police officials including newly-appointed DIG West Feroz Shah and SSP Central Noman Siddiqui, mistaken by Rehman’s pen-name, initially said the professor was a member of the Shia community and the murder could have been sectarian in nature. Both the officials as well as Yousuf Plaza SHO Akram Arain were unaware that Rehman was a PhD scholar, who had completed his doctorate degree under the supervision of Dr Shakeel Auj, who was murdered in a similar manner last year.