KARACHI: A 45-year-old doctor and his police guard were killed in Nazimabad on Tuesday in a targeted attack  blamed by police on a protection money racket.

The police said gunmen on two motorbikes intercepted Dr Asad Usman’s car near the Nazimabad No 7 traffic intersection minutes after he had left the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he worked as the head of medical unit 3.

“According to witnesses, the doctor’s car was intercepted by four men on two motorbikes,” said area SP Chaudhry Asad Ali.

“Two of them emerged on the road and the other two waited in a street along the road. The attackers used 9mm pistols and fired 18 shots. Dr Usman and his 33-year-old guard, police constable Irfan Bashir, suffered multiple wounds and died on the spot.”

The attackers sped away after the firing, which spread panic and sowed fear in the busy area. People around shifted the doctor and the policeman to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival. The investigators said the doctor had repeatedly been threatened for extortion.

“For the past few weeks, he had been receiving phone calls demanding Rs200,000. Because of the threat he was provided with a police guard, who travelled with him.

The killing seemed part of the same threat,” said SP Ali. He said the police had acquired the call record of the doctor and were pursuing investigations.

Condemnation

The killing was condemned by health professionals who strongly criticised the security administration.

“Doctors are facing immense insecurity,” said a statement issued by the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association. “The situation has triggered brain drain and the country is losing skilled health professionals. Protection of life and property of citizens is the primary responsibility of the state, but the government has failed to deliver that.”

The Pakistan Medical Association, Sindh, condemned the killing of the senior doctor.

“The law and order situation in Karachi is pathetic due to the deaf and dumb government,” said Dr Samrina Hashmi, president of the PMA Sindh, in a statement on Tuesday.

She said the PMA condemned the targeted killing of Dr Asad Usman and demanded that the government take steps to lessen the fear prevailing in the doctors’ community as such incidents were becoming the order of the day.

She asked the community and the public to gather at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital on Wednesday morning to protest the killing and condole Dr Usman’s death with his family.

According to the PMA, Sindh, at least eight doctors were killed in the province last year; two of them in Karachi. Six doctors, all belonging to Karachi, have been killed in the province till March 19 this year.

“Two doctors in the interior of Sindh were kidnapped recently — Dr Mumtaz Memon in Naushahro Feroze district has been recovered but Dr Zulfiqar Khaskheli is still in the custody of kidnappers,” Dr Hashmi said.

“The reasons behind the killing of doctors in Karachi are mixed. Doctors, like other people in Karachi, are being killed because of sectarian and ethnic issues and also for not paying extortion to criminals.”

“Dr Usman was a victim of extortionist mafia, who threatened him of consequences and attacked him when he did not bow out.”

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat leaders, however, said the doctor was killed on sectarian grounds. They condemned the incident and demanded a thorough investigation into it.

“It’s so unfortunate that the police authorities are trying to divert the real threat,” said an ASWJ spokesman. “We have reason to believe that Dr Usman was attacked for his religious beliefs as the past trend suggests frequent fatal attacks on professionals belonging to a particular sect. We demand the police authorities investigate Dr Usman’s killing without any influence and make its report public.”