KARACHI: A deputy superintendent of police along with his security guard and driver was shot dead on Friday morning in a gun attack that police believed was the job of banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

DSP Abdul Fatah Sangri along with his driver head constable Nazeer Ahmed and security guard constable Farooq Ahmed was travelling in a car to inspect police check points in the Steel Town area when they came under attack at around 9:30am, the area police said.

The four attackers riding motorcycles intercepted the car at ‘Bata Mor’ in Gulshan-i-Hadeed Phase-I and opened fire on it from three different directions, leaving all the three officials dead on the spot, said Karachi-East SSP Pir Mohammed Shah who had just taken the additional charge of Malir SSP after the late night transfer of SSP Rao Anwar.

The Steel Town police said the DSP sustained nine gunshot wounds while the other two policemen were hit by eight bullets each. The investigators later collected 27 spent bullet casings fired from 0.9mm pistol from the crime scene, said SSP Shah.The bodies were taken to a nearby 100-bed hospital being run by the Pakistan Steel Mills, where doctors declared all the victims dead on arrival. The corpses were later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Abdul Fatah Sangri was the DSP of Bin Qasim, while head constable was his driver and the constable was his security guard.The SSP said the police were not aware if the TTP had claimed responsibility of the attack. “DSP Sangri had not taken any active part in the operation against the militants,” he said.

However, the officer said, the police investigators were looking for clues to the involvement of some nationalist groups, the TTP or urban terrorists in it. “At this stage, we cannot rule out the possibility of involvement of anyone of these three groups,” SSP Shah added.

About the appearance of the attackers, the officer said that three of the attackers were reportedly clean-shaven and wearing shirts and trousers, while their accomplice wore shalwar-kameez who also sported a beard.

“The Bin Qasim DSP had not received threats from any group. He appeared to be a soft target, as the police officers who are active against militants tend to travel in bullet-proof vehicles, while travelling in official car with only one guard for his safety,” said SSP Shah.

Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hyder Jamali along with Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo and Karachi-East DIG Munir Ahmed Shaikh visited the spot.

The police chief told the media that it was “an act of terrorism”, which was being investigated thoroughly. He said there were several criminal groups operating in here and the police were taking active part in a crackdown to eliminate them, with the result that the crime rate had dropped in the city.

In reply to a question, the IG police said that the outgoing Malir-SSP did play an active part against terrorism and termed his performance ‘exemplary’.

Outgoing Malir-SSP Rao Anwar told Dawn that the police had found some clues to the TTP involvement in the attack though the slain DSP had not taken any active part against the militants. ‘The TTP militants seemed to have started targeting even innocent policemen,’ he said.

The body of the DSP was later taken by his relatives from the Edhi mortuary at Sohrab Goth, where it had been shifted from the JPMC after the autopsy, to his native place Pir Jo Goth in Khairpur district for burial.

Published in Dawn May 2nd, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play