KARACHI: The principal of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Law College, Memon Goth, Malir, Prof Riaz Hussain Loond, was critically wounded in a gun attack on the National Highway on Saturday, officials said.

They added that the 47-year-old professor came under the armed attack near the Manzil petrol station on the National Highway, when he was driving from his home in Gulshan-i-Hadeed to his college.

“Two men on a motorcycle intercepted him and fired shots at him as he slowed down his car on a curve near the Manzil petrol pump,” said Steel Town SHO Inspector Arshad Awan.

“He was hit by multiple bullets and fell unconscious. The professor was first taken to a nearby hospital in Steel Town and later to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre after initial treatment.”

He agreed that the incident was not the result of a mugging attempt because the armed motorcyclists sped away after firing without taking anything from the professor. It was a deliberate attack to murder the law college principal, the SHO added.

Police also found casings of spent bullets at the crime scene.

The head of the JPMC emergency unit, Dr Seemi Jamali, said Prof Loond sustained multiple gunshot wounds and one of the bullets hit him in the abdomen.

“We immediately moved him to the operating theatre, where he underwent a surgery. He was badly wounded, but timely action by the doctors helped him recover to a certain extent,” she added.

The wounded professor was also a Sindh High Court lawyer and additional general secretary of the People’s Lawyer Forum.

Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in a statement issued here, condemned the attack on the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Law College principal.

He said the police and other law-enforcement agencies should take steps to protect the common people and political workers.

He expressed sympathy with the members of the professor’s family and prayed for his early recovery.

The incident also enraged the legal fraternity, which condemned the government and law enforcement agencies for “failing to provide security to its members”.

Man found shot dead in Lyari

A young man was found shot dead in the Chakiwara area of Lyari on Saturday, the police said.

They added that the victim, in his late 20s, was hit by three bullets fired at close range.

“His body was found in near Bakra Piri close to Madina Masjid. The incident appears to be linked with the renewed wave of gang warfare between criminal groups,” said an official at the Chakiwara police station. The man’s identity remained unclear.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2014