‘Target killer’ gunned down in shootout

Sindh’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Saturday claimed to have gunned down a target killer affiliated with a political group during a shoot-out in the morning.

CTD chief DIG Omar Shahid Hamid said that during their investigations regarding target killing cases, a piece of information was shared by a federal-based intelligence agency about the presence of suspected target killers in the Korangi area of Karachi.

Hamid said that taking action on the information received, officials of the CTD and the intelligence agency carried out a raid near Bagh-e-Korangi, where the law enforcers met with an armed resistance, following which the officials returned fire.

After a shootout, the police arrested a suspect in an injured condition, but his accomplices managed to escape from the scene, added the CTD chief.

He said that the injured suspect was identified as Azam, alias Ganja, who was affiliated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) London faction, but he died on the way to the hospital. A 9mm pistol was found on his person, added the DIG.

Citing the investigation, he said they had found that the suspect had been one of the main members of the target killing team from the Korangi Sector and a close associate of notorious target killer Junaid, alias Bulldog.

Hamid said their investigations had also found that the suspect had remained active between 2012 and 2013 in target killings and disrupting law and order, while he had targeted a person in Korangi’s Hong Kong Colony on the instructions of his unit incharge.

The officer said that on the instructions of his sector incharge in 2013, the suspect had targeted Jabbar Mangi, an official of the Karachi Development Authority, near the Chiniot Hospital, while he had targeted Farooq, a worker of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi, in Landhi the same year.

The CTD chief said that the suspect had targeted his own party worker, who had been sitting at the Korangi Sector office, after taking him to the K-Area in Zamanabad. DIG Hamid said that there were several other crimes that had been committed by the suspect, adding that the hunt for his remaining accomplices was under way.