KARACHI, Dec 29: The provincial Chief Secretary, K. B. Rind, has ordered an inquiry into an incident of attempted murder a couple of weeks back in Gulistan-i-Jauhar area.

A delegation of the Bankers’ Welfare Association, led by Masood Zaidi, President of the Citizen Welfare Council, had called on the chief secretary at his office recently and apprised him of the facts.

Members of the delegation revealed that the victim, Atif Bashir, was waylaid by some unknown persons when he alighted from the Sahibuz Zaman mosque in the area. They sprinkled petrol all over his body and set him on fire. Most of the horrified passersby ran to safety fearing an outrage from the attackers but some of them dared to rescue the victim. They extinguished the fire and rushed Atif to a nearby hospital in a precarious condition, they said.

The delegation requested the chief secretary to order an inquiry into the whole affair. It claimed that police were reluctant to conduct investigations in the matter as despite lodging of a report, nothing had so far emerged with regard to the arrest of the attackers.

Mr Rind, in view of the gravity of situation, ordered the Home department to conduct a thorough inquiry into the affair and submit a report with him within a week. He also directed the officials to provide all possible assistance to the victim.—PPI