KARACHI: The death of a young woman turned out to be an incident of targeted killing after investigators found CCTV footage that showed a lone assailant firing a single shot on a moving car in Gulshan-i-Iqbal late on Sunday night, police said on Tuesday.

Based on the statement of her brother, Abdullah, the police had initially believed that a stray bullet hit 26-year-old Asia Abdul Samad when she was passing by a government school in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block 6 in her car.

Abdullah had told the police that he was teaching his sister how to drive the car. He said he heard a gunshot and saw that the blood was oozing out of her sister’s neck.

During investigation, police collected CCTV footage from the area and found that she was targeted by a motorcyclist.

Gulshan SHO Abdul Rasool Bughio said that the footage showed that the lone assailant on a motorcycle fired at the woman who was driving the car from a very close range and rode away.

He said that it was clear that the assailant did not attempt to stop the car.

The police said that the woman was killed in a targeted attack but the motive for the murder was yet to be ascertained.

The SHO said that the family told the police that they did not have any enmity with anyone.

He said that the police registered a murder case against an unknown person under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s brother.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2024