KARACHI, Dec 3: Two Moroccans among three members of the Tableeghi Jamaat were killed in an attack outside a mosque in North Nazimabad on Tuesday hours after a Shia scholar was gunned down along with his security guard in ambush on their car on University Road.

Police investigators believed the murders of prominent people from different schools of thought were not carried out on sectarian grounds but were part of an organised campaign by an unnamed ‘third force’.

In two other incidents of firing, a scouts’ supervisor and four others, including a water hydrant owner, were killed on Tuesday.

The Shia leader of the Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM), who had contested on the PS-126 seat in the general elections in May, and his bodyguard were killed in an ambush on their car on University Road on Tuesday afternoon with the investigators claiming that the killing of Allama Deedar Ali Jalbani hours after that of a Deobandi mufti was not part of killings on sectarian grounds but was a result of an organised campaign launched by a ‘third force’ to fuel sectarian hatred.

The double murder triggered tension in several parts of the metropolis, where shops and other commercial activities were suspended.

MWM leader Allama Deedar Jalbani, 55, and his guard Sarfraz Hussain, 35, were on their way from the Met office roundabout towards the NIPA traffic intersection in a Honda car when six suspects riding two motorcycles opened fire on them near the NED University and fled, said Mobina Town SHO Jamal Muhammad Leghari. They received multiple bullet wounds and were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors declared them dead.Additional police surgeon Dr Abdul Haq said the victims were hit by three bullet wounds each in the head and chest.

Allama Jalbani, who hailed from Mirwah in Khairpur district, was Zakir and Khateeb at the Husseini Imambargah in Ayub Goth, Saleem-uz-Zaman Siddiqui Road, near the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission offices, said the police officer.

About the possible motive for the double murder, DIG-East Munir Ahmad Shaikh told Dawn that “one dominant view prevailing among the law-enforcement agencies is that these murders are not of sectarian nature, but a third force is involved in them and its purpose is to cause tension and defame the ongoing operation against criminals”.

Sketches

Elaborating, the senior police officer said that sketches of the killers of the two Shia friends killed on New Preedy Street on Sunday night and a Deobandi scholar and a homoeopathic doctor in F. B Area on Monday evening had been drawn and they resembled each other, which meant that the same killers were targeting both Shia and Sunni victims.

Munir Shaikh said they had intelligence reports about such possible events and on whose basis ‘extensive patrolling’ was being carried out in different parts of Karachi.

The DIG-East said the police requested the traders and shopkeepers, especially in Abbas Town, to close their businesses for security. Besides, a part of M.A. Jinnah Road at the Purani Numaish roundabout was closed for traffic.

“The elements that conspired to instigate sectarian violence in the country in Pindi during Ashura were involved in the murder of the Shia cleric and his guard in Karachi,” said MWM secretary general Raja Nasir Abbas Jafferi.

He announced three-day mourning and peaceful countrywide protest on Wednesday against the killings. He warned that if the killers were not arrested within 24 hours, they would be “compelled to take extreme action”.

Allama Deedar Jalbani was deputy secretary general of the MWM in Karachi, who had also contested on the PS-126 seat in the last general election, said the MWM spokesperson. He left a widow and two children.

Attack on preachers

In the attack outside a mosque in North Nazimabad Block-I, two Moroccan members of the Tableeghi Jamaat among three people were killed, said the Shahrah-i-Noorjehan police.

They added that as members of Tableeghi Jamaat (preaching party) came out from Madani mosque, gunmen opened fire, wounding four persons.

The wounded were brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared three of them dead on arrival, said senior medico-legal officer Dr Aftab Channar.

He said the victims were identified as Abdul Majeed and Umer Khattab, hailing from Morocco, and a Pakistani, Mohammed Suleman.

According to SSP-Central Amir Farooqi, two foreigners had come to Pakistan to attend the Raiwind congregation in Lahore. They later came to Karachi around five to six days ago on a preaching assignment, he said.

He added they stayed at the mosque for a day and were on their way to another area when they were attacked.

SSP Farooqi opined that the killing of the three men could be a move to instigate sectarian violence.

Scout gunned down

A scout was later gunned down in Sharafi Goth, police said.

They added Syed Zakir Shah, 25, supervisor of Payam Scouts, was targeted at a bus stop in Awami Colony by armed men riding a motorbike.

Mr Shah, an employee of the Port Qasim Authority, sustained three bullet wounds and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he was pronounced dead on arrival. “The murder appeared to be an act of targeted killing,” said Sharafi Goth SHO Akhlaq Ahmed.

Some time later, the police said, four men were shot dead in attack on a vehicle near Sakhi Hasan area.

The police said gunmen opened fire on the vehicle, wounding four persons. The wounded were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead. The deceased were identified as Mushtaq Mohmand, Zar Mohmand, Jamshed Khan and Khan Mujahidi.m The SSP said Mushtaq Mohmand ran water hydrants.