KARACHI: Three policemen were gunned down in the Quaidabad and Ittehad Town areas on Tuesday in what police described as tit-for-tat attacks launched by suspected militants to avenge the killing of their comrades in encounters.

Officials said two of the three policemen were shot dead in Quaidabad hours after the killing of a murder suspect in an encounter in the same area. And the third policeman was gunned down in Ittehad Town, where law-enforcers had killed two suspected militants in an encounter on Monday night.

They said that Azhar Abbas, 37, and Azam Khan, 36, head constable and constable, respectively, reached the post office in Quaidabad’s Gul Ahmed Colony to perform their duty at 9am. They were parking their motorbike when four armed men riding two motorcycles emerged there, two of them got off the two-wheelers and opened fire on the policemen, said Quaidabad DSP Ghulam Nabi Wago.

They sustained serious bullet wounds and were moved to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors declared them dead.

The assailants also took away their official sub-machine guns.

The Quaidabad DSP said that the targeted attack could be a reaction of the killing of a suspected gangster, Saeed Qadir alias Syeda, in an encounter in Majeed Colony, Quaidabad at around 4am.

The dead man was allegedly involved in the Aug 12 killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector Jamil in Quaidabad, as the slain ASI had played an important role in his arrest. He was allegedly involved in around 45 criminal cases, including murders and robberies, and was recently enlarged on bail.

However, SSP-Malir Rao Anwar said that the policemen were targeted by suspected militants.

He added that the police recently took action against the militants who were targeting them. “We have got significant clues to the identification of the militants involved in the incident and hopefully they would be taken to task soon,” he said.

In the Ittehad Town area, a 37-year-old police constable, Tahir Mehmood, was targeted when he was on his way to the Mohammad Khan Colony post on his motorbike to perform his duty.

The police said that the constable was in civilian dress when he was targeted at a desolate place, which was surrounded by the bushes. He sustained a single bullet wound in the head, they added.

The murder came after the killing of two suspected militants of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in an encounter in the same area on Monday night. Police believed that one of them was allegedly involved in the recent killing of the caretaker of an Imambargah and his daughter in Surjani Town.

Following the killing of the policeman, Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo suspended the Ittehad Town SHO and transferred the sub-division police officer of Baldia Town, said a police spokesperson.

On Sunday, Constable Abdul Wakeel, 40, was shot dead in Baldia Town. Sources said that he was the lone prosecution witness in the Wali Khan Babar murder case.

On Monday, ASI Ali Nawaz was gunned down in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

JI man shot dead in Surjani

An activist of the Jamaat-i-Islami was shot dead in Surjani Town on Tuesday, police said.

They added that Mohammed Ishaq, 30, was targeted by armed motorcyclists when he was sitting at his under-construction house in Surjani Town’s Sector 50-F at around 3.45pm.

He was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared him dead.

The victim was associated with the JI’s public aid committee in Taiser Town, said Surjani SHO Bashir Ahmed.

He taught area children the Quran at his under-construction house and was known as Maulvi Ishaq. The attackers sported a bearded, the area SHO added. “The police have got a lead about the motive for the killing and we are working on it,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014