HYDERABAD: Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists including an old party guard, Aslam alias Alam, were gunned down while four others were injured in an armed attack at Liberty Chowk on Tuesday night.
The other deceased was identified as Azam Qureshi, a resident of Faisal Chowk Paretabad, who was present there to participate in a rally.
Meanwhile, a passerby named Abdul Razzaq Channa has also died in the incident.
The injured included Fayyaz alias Cheena, Bahadur and Shoaib Ajmeri.
They were shifted to a private hospital. Two of them, Bahadur and Shoaib Ajmeri were shifted to Bhittai hospital.
According to reports, Aslam alias Alam was present along with other party activists, including Cheena, at Liberty Chowk when four armed motorcyclists targeted them.
An unconfirmed report said that one of the assailants went to Alam and shot him at point blank range.
He received two bullet injuries in his skull. The gunmen also resorted to firing on those who were present there.
Meanwhile MQM party activists, who were busy in preparations for a rally, returned fire, but by then the assailants had already managed to escape. The injured were shifted to Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) city branch and later to a private hospital.
Meanwhile, party activists rushed to LUMHS and resorted to heavy aerial firing. They ransacked the operation theatre located in the casualty department, smashed windowpanes and damaged other equipment, which made doctors and paramedics in the department flee.
Alam was shifted to Karachi in an ambulance but a doctor, who examined him, said that he had already expired after arriving in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Since tempers were running high on the part of crowd, the doctor didn’t confirm Alam's death and asked party workers to shift him to Karachi immediately. The workers moved him to Karachi in an ambulance while the crowd immediately dispersed.
The death of Alam has now however been official confirmed by the MQM. His body will now be brought back to Hyderabad.
The body of Azam Qureshi has been handed over to his relatives. Shops were immediately shut in the area especially at Liberty Chowk which soon plunged into darkness.
A large number of people gathered at the spot where the activists had been targeted.
Alam had a controversial past throughout his political career and had allegedly been involved in different disputes, mostly armed ones.
He was himself attacked on various occasions. Only recently he was part of an armed dispute at a shrine but according to his close associates it was later resolved through negotiations. He was an employee in Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE).
