KARACHI: A Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) worker was shot dead in Orangi Town late on Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday.

They termed the killing an outcome of a scuffle over ‘Kabotar-bazi’ (pigeon keeping), but the political party alleged that it was a ‘targeted attack’ allegedly carried out by workers of a religio-political party.

Pakistan Bazaar SHO Sohail Khaskheli said that 40-year-old Pervez Shaikh was gunned down in Gulshan-i-Zia near a graveyard, where he went to offer fateha at the graves of his relatives on the occasion of Shab-i-Barat.

The victim was affiliated with the PML-F and belonged to the Bengali community, he said.

He said that a scuffle had broken out within the members of the same community, some of them belonged to the Jamaat-i-Islami, over pigeon keeping a couple of weeks ago. Pervez’s brother had suffered injuries in the scuffle and his family got registered a case against one Nadeem alias Thopa. He was arrested and released on bail recently.

The SHO said that on Tuesday night, both the victim and the suspects visited the graveyard in connection with Shab-i-Barat, where a scuffle broke out between them.

The suspects fired at Pervez and fled. He suffered two bullet wounds in the abdomen and leg and died on the spot.

SHO Khaskheli said that a case was registered against Nadeem and two others.

He said that the murder was motivated by personal enmity.

However, PML-F general secretary Sardar Abdul Rahim said that it was an act of targeted killing that aimed at ‘destroying the peace’ in the metropolis In a statement, Mr Rahim, without mentioning the party, claimed that members of a religious party — Nadeem and Shahbaz — were involved in the murder. He demanded that they be arrested immediately.

He asked the leadership of the religious party to dissociate itself from the suspects involved in the killing.

“PML-F is a peaceful party and if the killers are not arrested immediately, it would hold a Sindh-wide protest against the religious party,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2023