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| November 9, 2005 | Wednesday | Shawwal 6, 1426 |
Firing in Muzaffarabad: rivals trade allegations
MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 8: Two activists of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were injured here on Tuesday in incidents of firing blamed by rivals on each other.
JI spokesman Khwaja Raees said that Syed Imran Shah, 28, had been shot at near the Neelum Bridge by Chaudhry Lal Hussain, a resident of Neelum Valley and currently associated with MQM’s relief activities as a volunteer.
The JI workers, he alleged, were returning to their relief camp at the conclusion of a demonstration when Mr Hussain, riding a motorcycle flying an MQM flag, fired a shot in the air to provoke them and when the JI workers grabbed him he fired on Mr Shah.
The accused and his weapon were handed over to policemen who arrived at the place, he said, adding that the injured worker was taken to the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences where he was operated upon.
However, MQM’s Sindh MPA Syed Arshad Shah rejected the allegation and said that JI people had shot at and wounded their volunteer from Mirpurkhas, Zubair Bhatti, while he had gone to the market with Mr Hussain to bring fruit for the telephonic press conference of MQM chief at the local press club.
He alleged that the JI activists had also kidnapped Adil Rashid, another MQM volunteer from Muzaffarabad, who was released after three hours.
AJK IGP Shahid Hasan confirmed to Dawn that two people from rival parties had received bullet wounds, and said that police had been deployed to relief camps and tent villages of both parties.
Earlier in the day, JI workers had staged a demonstration in protest against a police raid on an Al-Khidmat relief camp on Monday night.
PPI adds from Karachi: Meanwhile, JI said that five of its workers, carrying out relief activities, were injured, one of them seriously, when an activist of the MQM fired on them with a pistol in Muzaffarabad.
A statement issued in Karachi by JI spokesman Shahid Shamsi said the injured were taken to a JI field hospital in Anbure Camp and one of them, Imran Ali Shah, was operated upon. The others were discharged after first aid.
He accused the MQM of creating a Karachi-like law and order situation in Azad Kashmir and said it had gone there with a ‘specific agenda’.
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