MIRPURKHAS, Sept 8: Unidentified assailants shot a doctor dead and seriously injured his guard and two others after barging into his private hospital in Tourabad on Monday.

Dr Abdul Mannan Siddique, owner of Fazl-i-Umar Medical Centre, who, according to sources had been receiving death threats for a couple of days, was a Qadyani and would be buried in Rabwah, Punjab.

Dr Siddique was fired at by two unidentified assailants when he was coming back to his office after visiting different wards. Mohammad Arif, a private security guard, Ghulam Hussain, an attendant of a patient and a woman Ms Husna Narejo suffered injuries.

The assailants resorted to aerial firing to disperse people who had gathered outside the hospital and fled on two motorcycles with two other accomplices who were keeping watch outside.

As the news broke, dozens of people gathered outside the hospital.

Mirpurkhas DPO Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh, SPO Mehboob Baloch, president of Mirpurkhas chapter of Pakistan Medical Association Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, civil surgeon Dr Roshan Ali Bhatti, District Naib Nazim Zafar Ahmed Kamali, zonal in-charge MQM Mirpurkhas Saleem Razzaq, Taluka Nazim Mirpurkhas Ghulam Dastagir also reached hospital.

SPO Mehboob Baloch said it was a target-killing as the assailants wanted to make sure he had been kill Dr Abdul Mannan.

The condition of the injured Mohammad Arif, private guard and Ghulam Hussain is stated to be serious. The doctor’s body was brought to Civil Hospital for post mortem.

Dr Abdul Mannan was owner of Fazl-e-Umar Medical Centre and was a Qadyani. His body will be buried at Rabwah, Punjab.

Sources said that he had been receiving threats for a couple of days. Later in the day, activists of different NGOs including HRCP core group, took out a rally in protest against targeted killing of Dr Siddique.

Asghar Narejo, Kanji Rano Bheel, Manzoor Memon, Dr Aanand Kumar and Najaf Leghari who led the rally accused religious extremists of being involved in the murder.

They regretted that the terrorists were moving about openly and killing innocent people and police had completely failed to provide protection to people.

They said that people of Sindh would fight against conspiracies against religious minorities and deplored that the doctor was killed only because he was a Qadyani.

They said that in his murder the city had been deprived of a good and sincere doctor and demanded that the government ensure immediate arrest of the culprits involved in his murder.