HYDERABAD: A political activist, Syed Hassan Mujtaba Zaidi aka Kaka, said to be a diehard worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was gunned down in what was described as a targeted attack on Wednesday night.

Mr Zaidi, who was in his mid 40s, was on his way home along with his three children when he was targeted outside the official residence of the Hyderabad deputy commissioner.

The victim’s emotionally charged family members, MNA Syed Wasim Hussain, MPAs Dilawar Qureshi and Zubair Ahmed Khan and a number of party activists gathered at the Liaquat University Hospital soon after the incident.

Kaka was an employee of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) and also the head of the Anjuman-i-Hyderi, a Shia association that organises the Ashura procession in the city. He was a resident of Tilak In-cline.

His two close associates, Aslam aka Alam and Azam Qureshi, were gunned down in a similar fashion on May 7 at Liberty Chowk last year.

Tension prevailed across the city after the incident and shops in Tilak Incline and adjacent localities were closed in panic.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2014