KARACHI, Feb 21: A moazzin and the son of a prayer leader (Pesh-imam) were shot and wounded on Saturday in an attack on an imambargah in Shah Faisal Colony, where three houses and a shop were also set on fire, the city police chief said.
The attacks sparked violent protests in Gulberg, Ancholi and its adjoining areas, where protesters torched a minibus, a truck and a car. A strong contingent of police and Rangers brought the situation under control in the affected areas.
Police and witnesses said Ahmed Hussain, deputy prayer leader (moazzin), and Ghulam Mustafa, son of Pesh-imam Maulana Shafa Ali, were shot and wounded, one of them critically, in the attack on the imambargah in Shah Faisal Colony No 5.
They said most parts of the locality echoed with heavy gunfire as gun-totting activists attacked several houses in Shah Faisal Colony No 5.
The capital city police chief, Wasim Ahmed, told Dawn that the trouble started following and during the funeral procession of a youth, who was killed in the locality on Friday. “There were disturbances and violent activities in some parts of the locality between 5pm and 7pm, and the situation returned to normality after a heavy deployment of police and Rangers in the affected areas,” he added.
The injured moazzin and the prayer leader’s son were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
The chief of the JPMC’s emergency and trauma centre, Dr Seemin Jamali, told Dawn that Ahmed Hussain was shot a bullet in the abdomen and he was being operated upon till late in the night. “He has received life-threatening injuries,” she added.
The JPMC director said Ghulam Mustafa had received two bullets, one in the chest and the other in the groin. “He is more stable, although he was shot twice,” she said.
A former chief scout of the Imamia Student Organisation, Fakhar Abbas Zaidi, also a resident of the neighbourhood, told Dawn that the attackers torched the houses of Syed Zafar Abbas Zaidi, Syed Akhtar Hussain Zaidi and Mudassar Ali, and the shop of Saghir Hussain Zaidi.
He said the moazzin and the Pesh-imam’s son were making arrangements for the Maghrib prayers at the imambargah when a group of attackers opened fire on them.
He said male community members were in the funeral procession of Wasim Abbas when the miscreants attacked their houses.
Sharea Faisal remained closed for over three hours as the participants of the funeral procession staged a sit-in in front of the Shah Faisal Colony graveyard.
The city police chief said that heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed in the trouble-hit parts of Shah Faisal Colony. “Security around the religious buildings has also been beefed up,” he added.
The CCPO said that the SPs of all towns were directed to remain vigilant.
