KARACHI: The case of Wednesday’s attack on a couple of Chinese origin at their dental clinic in Saddar was registered on Thursday against a separatist outfit calling itself the ‘Sindhudesh People’s Army (SPA)’ after it claimed responsibility for the terrorist act through a social media post.

The couple, Dr Richard Hu and Ms Phen Teyin, were wounded and their cashier Ronald Raymond Chou was killed when a lone attacker in the garb of patient had attacked them with a pistol.

Police believe that the SPA is a conglomerate of small separatist groups comprising Sindhi and Baloch elements.

According to police officials, the suspect clad in pant and shirt and wearing a red cap entered the dental clinic in the garb of a patient seeking treatment of his teeth. After waiting for a few minutes in the lounge, he advanced into the cabin of the clinic where the couple was present. He took out his pistol and opened fire on the couple and their cashier. The latter died in the attack while the wounded couple were rushed to a hospital.

‘Chinese’ doctor and wife are Pakistani nationals, hold Canadian passports; police say their condition is out of danger

South-SSP Syed Asad Raza has, meanwhile, explained that Doctor Richard Hu and his wife Phen Teyin are Pakistani nationals but they also possessed Canadian passports, thus they have dual nationality.

The officer said that the case was registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on terrorism and murder charges on behalf of the state on a complaint lodged by a Preedy police officer.

The police believed that the attack was aimed at undermining Pakistan-China relations and sabotaging their joint projects in the country.

SSP Raza, who also visited Aga Khan University Hospital to inquire about the health of the couple, said that their condition was stated to be out of danger. Dr Hu was on ventilator but able to speak, he added.

According to the contents of FIR, Dr Richard Hu and his wife Phen Teyin along with their cashier Ronald Raymond Chou were busy in their routine work at the clinic when a customer clad in pant and shirt and wearing a red cap entered the clinic and asked for scaling of his teeth. He seemed to be a Sindhi or Balochi speaker.

After five/six minutes, he stood up from his seat in the waiting lounge and proceeded to the doctors’ cabin, where he took out a pistol and started firing, killing the cashier and wounding the couple. The suspect quickly walked out of the clinic to join his accomplice, waiting on a motorcycle parked outside. They then sped away. The accomplice was also clad in pant and shirt.

The FIR said that through intelligence sources and social media, the police came to know that the responsibility for the attack was claimed by the SPA, a conglomerate of Sindhi and Baloch separatist outfits.

According to the FIR, unknown terrorists and their facilitators believed to be belonging to the SPA had attacked Pakistanis of Chinese origin with the purported aim of undermining Pakistan-China ties and sabotaging their joint development projects in the country.

Besides, they wanted to spread terror in the country to achieve their numerous other objectives and gain media coverage for their organisation, it added.

IG seeks cooperation in controlling crime

Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon on Thursday claimed that crimes in the metropolis had registered a decline because of joint efforts by the police and community.

Speaking to traders at the Korangi Association of Trade & Industries (KATI), he said around 46,000 CCTV cameras had been installed across the city which would be linked with ‘Madadgar-15’ very soon.

The IG said that not only police stations were being ‘strengthened’, but the Shaheen Force was also being made more active to improve the overall performance of police in fighting crime.

He said the Sindh government was helping police department by providing increased manpower and logistics. He pointed out that around 16,000 policemen had been recruited on a merit basis. He said patrolling and picketing were being intensified and Madadgar-15 was being strengthened.

The provincial police chief urged citizens and notables of all areas to come forward and extend their cooperation to the police in fighting crime and restoring people’s confidence in the department.

He appreciated performance of the Traffic DIG who, he acknowledged, not only sent manpower but also heavy machinery to the flood-hit districts to ensure a smooth flow of vehicular traffic for provision of relief goods to the affected people.

Earlier, IG Memon inaugurated a system at KATI for the verification of its employees.

Industrialists Salman Aslam and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2022