Cop, citizen shot dead, another wounded in Karachi’s posh locality

KARACHI: A policeman and a passer-by were gunned down and another passer-by sustained injuries in a firing incident in Karachi’s posh locality of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on late Saturday night.

The incident occurred at Street No. 26, Phase VI, in Khayaban-e-Bukhari within the limits of Darakshan police station.

Police officials said 35-year-old police constable identified as Khalid Mehmood and a passer-by, namely Ramzan, were gunned down and Ramzan’s companion named Saeed Ahmed was injured in a firing incident on the night between Saturday and Sunday at around 3:20am. The deceased cop was posted at the Darakshan police station. He was shot dead when he was on intelligence duty.

Though the armed men had managed to escape before a contingent of police reached the site yet the police investigators found a white coloured SUV from the crime scene, which the culprits left while fleeing.

The police investigators also recovered four empty shells of a pistol from the crime scene and sent them to the forensic division of the Sindh Police.

However, in a major breakthrough, the police also claimed to have arrested one of the key suspects who was later identified as Nazeer Kandhari. “The arrested suspect enjoys support of an influential group of politicians as he belongs to Dalbadin and is the son of a prominent politician in Balochistan’s Killa Saifullah,” District South Investigations SSP Tariq Dharejo told The News.

“Another suspect in this case, namely Bilal, is also believed to be the son of any industrialist and we are verifying his background.”On the other hand, district South SSP Operations Pir Muhammad Shah said that a group of four friends including Nazeer Kandhari, Sanaullah Dashti belonging to Dasht, a town of Kharan district in Balochistan, Bilal, a resident of Clifton, Karachi, and Mian Hassan of Shikarpur were together and the police have also held another suspect, namely Mian Hassan but in his initial statement, he denied his presence at the time of incident.

Explaining the incident, SSP Shah said that two 9mm pistols were used in the incident and the police was trying to trace and identify the second suspect who was with Kandhari and opened fire at the victims.

“They are basically the spoiled children who came onto the roads in the middle of nights for racing,” SSP Shah explained. “They were drunk at the time of incident occurred. Even Kandhari was not conscious till the Sunday evening.”

On the other hand, Darakshan SHO Faiz Ahmed also named another suspect, namely Asif who according to the SHO is son of a prominent business tycoon of a country. “We have arrested him (Kandhari) from a private hospital on National Stadium Road in Karachi,” said Darakshan SHO Faiz Ahmed while talking to The News. “After the incident, he went to the hospital as he was drunk and was admitted there and we arrested him on a tip-off.”

SHO Ahmed further said that they parking the Vigo on the road, they first shot and killed the cop who was in intelligence duty in civvies and then shot Ramzan. When Ramzan’s bike slipped and he fell down on the road, the suspects then shot his companion, Saeed who was shot once in his shoulder.

The deceased policeman hailed from Shikarpur. Deceased Ramzan and his companion Saeed worked at a bungalow in the area and were returning home from work when the incident occurred. Deceased Ramzan hailed from Rahim Yar Khan. “There was no reason for shooting and killing the victims but they were just drunk and shot and killed them without any reason,” the SHO explained. “The suspects even also attempted to kill a man who was passing from there on a Prado but he remained unhurt.”

A security guard posted to one of the consulates in the area, also an eyewitness of the case, told the media that both the men seemed drunk who opened fire on the policeman and the passersby. “One man opened fire at the cop and the passersby while they were passing from there,” he explained.

“The suspects even attempted to kill me when I was making a phone call to the police but I escaped the attack as I immediately went inside the consulate and locked the door.” He said that the suspects later escaped while locking their vehicle. The officer said that the vehicle used by the suspects was registered in the name of a person, namely Nafz Khan and the police also interrogated him but he told the police that he had sold his vehicle to Nazir Kandhari on open letter.

The officer said that deceased cop and passerby were shot multiple times. “They both were shot in their heads,” the officer revealed.

The officer said that a case was also being registered against the suspects on behalf of state while the police were also going to place Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act besides putting sections of 302 and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code.