KARACHI: A leader of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) was shot dead in a suspected targeted attack near the busy Sakhi Hasan Chowrangi on Monday evening, Taimuria police and party officials said.

As Abdul Habib, 40, driving a land cruiser, reached near the Serena mobile market, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on him. He sustained critical bullet injuries and was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, said additional police surgeon Dr Saleem Shaikh. He received multiple bullet wounds, confirmed the doctor.

The victim had recently shifted to Gulshan-i-Maymar.

A PSP spokesperson, Iftikhar Alam, told Dawn that the victim was their party leader. He had contested election on a party ticket for PS-122.

“It appeared to be a targeted killing incident,” said Additional IG Karachi Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh.

Answering a question regarding the recent targeted killing of political workers and policemen, Dr Shaikh said the investigators had made “some progress” in unearthing the killers and their possible motive for the murder of two PSP workers and injuries to two others in Rizvia Society in December last year.

Meanwhile, Sindh IG Dr Syed Kaleem Imam sought a detailed inquiry report from the Central SSP into the political worker’s killing, said a police spokesperson.

The Sindh chief minister also sought a report from the Karachi AIG and ordered the immediate arrest of the killers.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2019