KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Faisal Vawda was driving back home after visiting the National Accountability Bureau office with senior PTI leader Imran Ismail when he came under attack near Delhi Colony on Friday afternoon.
Mr Vawda remained safe in the targeted attack whose motive seems political, according to the PTI.
Four shots fired by the attackers hit the bullet and bombproof four-by-four of Mr Vawda near a recently built mall on Chaudhry Khaleeq-uz-Zaman Road at 4.30pm.
However, the armed motorcyclists fled when his security guard returned fire, police said.
The PTI leader was invited to the NAB office to ‘help’ them in providing proofs of several corruption cases, as he had been speaking against corruption, money laundering and terrorism. Karachi-South SSP Saqib Ismail Memon said there was a CCTV camera near the crime scene, but it was of no use for police investigators.
Speaking to Dawn, official in charge of the counter-terrorism department of police Raja Umer Khattab, who examined the crime scene, said four suspects riding two motorbikes came from the left and right sides of the PTI leader’s vehicle.
“However, all the three bullets were fired at the right side of the vehicle,” he said.
He said one of the bullets hit the glass but it did not create any impact. Two other bullets hit the vehicle near its side door streamer, he added.
Police investigators collected three spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime scene. They also seized four spent bullet casings of Kalashnikov that was used by the PTI leader’s guard.
Political motive
Later, PTI leaders told the media that the attack appeared to have been motivated by political considerations.
After arriving back home, Mr Vawda told the reporters that NAB had sought his ‘help’ in collecting evidence in several corruption cases. For the past several months, he said, he had been speaking against corruption, money laundering and terrorism. He said he even visited London to provide proofs against MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
Besides, he added, he had also been talking against corruption allegedly committed by the PML-Nawaz-led federal government and the PPP.
“Mudslinging has been started against me to divert public attention from Panama Leaks. Rumours were spread that NAB called me in the investigation related to a plot case,” said Mr Vawda, while claiming that he had no plot.
Besides, the PTI leader said he would not register any “wrong FIR” against “unknown suspects”.
For this purpose, he said, he consulted party chairman Imran Khan, who told him that they would take a stand.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, too, called him and promised him of a proper inquiry into the incident.
He said he also talked to a Rangers officer and senior police officials who told him that he was under a “severe threat”. He said the attackers had done ‘solid’ work, but he remained unhurt because his vehicle was ‘bomb-proof’. He said he had four such bomb-proof vehicles and he usually travelled in a motorcade but he committed a ‘mistake’ by using only one vehicle for travel on Friday.
Mr Vawda announced that such tactics could not restrain him from doing the “right thing” for the sake of Pakistan. He urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the incident.
PTI leader Imran Ismail said the motive for the ambush was “political”, because they had no personal enmity with anyone.
Without naming anyone, he said someone, who might be “exposed” through the documentary proofs provided by them, could be involved in this attack.
Mr Ismail said they heard the gunfire when they reached near Punjab Chowrangi. “We later realised that a masked man was firing shots at Faisal Vawda,” he said. Another attacker was seen waiting with his motorbike at some 10 to 12 feet from the vehicle. He was probably there to “ensure” that the shooter did his job, the PTI leader added.
Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2016
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