DR Syed Waheed-ur-Rehman

KARACHI: In the second targeted killing of a well-known figure here in a week, an assistant professor of Karachi University’s mass communication department, Dr Syed Waheed-ur-Rehman, was shot dead on Wednesday, fanning fears that the city could be plunging again into violence after a brief respite.

Last Friday, prominent human rights activist and director of The Second Floor (T2F), Sabeen Mahmud, was gunned down in Defence area.

Dr Rehman, 42, was going to Karachi University (KU) in his car and when he reached near the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases in Federal ‘B’ Area, four men on two motorcycles opened fire on him, said SHO of Yusuf Plaza police station, Akram Arain.

He received five bullet injuries, on the face, neck, chest, abdomen and arm, police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir said. Dr Rehman was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was declared dead, added the surgeon.

“It is a targeted killing, but it has nothing to do with sectarianism,” said city police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo.

“The murder might be related to KU matters,” he said, without specifying the issues which could be involved.

However, Mr Thebo did say that Dr Rehman’s murder could be linked to the killing of another KU academic, Prof Shakeel Auj, who was shot dead on Sept 18 last year when he was going to attend a function organised in his honour at the Iranian Cultural Centre.

Initially, police believed that Prof Auj might have been killed because of his religious orientation or for his efforts to unearth an alleged scam at the KU. But on Jan 28, Mr Thebo said at a press conference that a man belonging to a political party was suspected to have killed Prof Auj.

Prof Tauseef Ahmed of mass communication department of the Federal Urdu University, who had taught the slain academic, said that Dr Rehman had worked for his PhD under the guidance of Prof Auj.

Before joining the KU in 2009, Dr Rehman had worked as a reporter at daily ‘Ummat’ for 13 years, his former colleague Masroor Ahmed told Dawn.

He used the pen name of “Yasir Rizvi”, added Mr Ahmed.

Academic activities will remain suspended at the KU on Thursday in protest against the murder of Dr Rehman, according to president of the Karachi University Teachers Society Dr Jamil Hasan Kazmi.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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