KARACHI: Two employees of the city’s fire brigade department were shot dead in what police described as a targeted attack aimed at spreading terror in Korangi in the small hours of Saturday morning.

Korangi SSP Faisal Bashir Memon said all the victims were firemen, who were there to respond to any fire emergency in the area.

The Awami Colony police said two unidentified assailants entered the fire station at Korangi’s Bilal Chowrani at around 2am and opened indiscriminate fire killing Amir, 55, and Mehboob, 35, and wounding Irshad Rehmatullah, 30.

DIG-East Muquddus Haider told Dawn that the two assailants, who were riding a motorbike, arrived there, woke up the watchman and another fire employee and forced them inside the control room, where two other employees were asleep.

Two ‘militants’ killed, four CTD men hurt in separate incident

He said that the assailants also woke them up and started firing at the four persons. Three of them suffered bullet wounds while their fourth fellow escaped unhurt.

The DIG said that the assailants wore helmets throughout and rode away after their swift action.

The wounded were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where doctors pronounced two of them dead on arrival.

The DIG said that investigators were probing the incident from every possible angle.

He said an FIR had been lodged under anti-terrorism law.

Korangi SSP Faisal Bashir Memon said that the killers brought two other firemen, who were asleep at their quarters behind the fire office, at the control room and asked the four firemen to form a line and recite kalma before opening fire from behind.

He said the police also sought help of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) to probe the possible element of terrorism behind the incident.

He said all victims were firemen and they were on duty to respond to any emergency in the area.

Meanwhile, Karachi Adminis­trator Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who is also the provincial government’s spokesperson, declared the incident an act of terrorism.

He said that four firemen of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s fire brigade department came under attack.

CTD kills two suspects

The CTD claimed to have killed two suspected militants linked with a banned outfit allegedly involved in deadly hotel blast last year in Quetta in an encounter on the outskirts of Karachi on early Saturday morning.

According to the department, an encounter took place between CTD and terrorists at Janjal Goth, Super Highway, injuring four policemen while two unidentified accused were killed in the retaliatory action of the police.

The injured policemen - assistant sub-inspector Irfan, 45, and three constables Arshad Khan, 47, Muhammad Amir, 50, and Mola Bux, 46 - were shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital for treatment where condition of two of them was stated to be serious.

The bodies of militants were sent to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to fulfill legal formalities.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said the killed suspects received multiple bullet injuries.

A CTD official who wished not to be named said that it was a joint operation carried out by an intelligence agency and CTD Sindh. Besides, they also had intelligence cooperation from Balochistan.

The officer said they had information that the killed militants were involved in Serena hotel bomb blast in Quetta last year. They were also involved in targeted killing of a police officer in Balochistan.

The militants had shifted to Gulshan-i-Maymar’s Janjal Goth some days ago, said the officer, adding that detailed information about the encounter and the militants would be shared through a press conference by senior officials later on.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2022