November 12, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 11: A large number of Sunni Tehrik workers staged on Tuesday a demonstration near the City Courts on M. A Jinnah Road as another ST activist was gunned down by unknown assailants, taking the toll of ST workers to four in the last two days.

Traffic remained jammed for over an hour on one of the city’s major arteries as hundreds of ST supporters attended the Namaz-i-Janaza of the two party workers shot dead late on Monday night in North Nazimabad.

Speaking to workers, Shahid Ghauri, a central leader of the religious outfit, said the government was providing shelter to the terrorists. “If our party men continue to be killed, we will be compelled to take direct action against the terrorists,” he warned.

He said the whole administration seemed to be helpless before the terrorists, who were killing ST men across the city. “As many as 40 of our workers have been killed during the past six months,” he added.

The ST leader said the party workers were being killed to prevent the party from functioning in Karachi and other parts of the country. “The terrorists are freely moving about and there is no one to arrest them,” he said.

The namaz-i-janaza of the two ST men was held near Jama Cloth Market on M. A. Jinnah Road. Later the protesters, with the party leaders, marched on the road and staged a sit-in near the City Courts.

Earlier in the small hours of Tuesday, a 26-year-old worker of the Sunni Tehrik was gunned down near his home in Hussainabad.

The Azizabad police said the victim, Imran Qadri, was a resident of Siddiqabad, and he ran a halwa-puri outlet at Karimabad. He was father of an infant girl, they said.

Meanwhile, ST chief Mohammed Sarwat Ijaz Qadri convened a meeting of party leaders and officeholders against the killing of the party workers.

An ST spokesman said the meeting would chalk out a future strategy against the killing of party men.

KWSB man shot dead

A 40-year-old man was shot dead near Kalapul.

The Saddar police said the victim, Fareed, son of Yasin, a resident of Nazimabad, was riding his motorcycle (KR-5258) when he was shot dead.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a postmortem examination.

Sources at the hospital’s medico-legal section told Dawn that the victim was shot to the right ear from a very close range as the bullet went through his skull.

The police said they reached the spot within five minutes and found the victim lying beside his motorbike near the Naval Heights, a multi-storey residential plaza.

ASI Falak Sher told Dawn that the victim was a helper in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and, according to his family, he was not affiliated with any political or other party.

Uxoricide

A 55-year-old woman was strangled allegedly by her husband, who was arrested by the Frere police.

The police said Shafique Ahmed, 60, killed his wife, Surayya, at their rented house (11/3) in Delhi Colony. They said the couple was childless.

A case (317/2008) against the suspect was registered on the complaint of the victim’s younger brother, Salim.