KARACHI: Police registered a terrorism case on Friday for the killing of a policeman, who was shot dead and his colleague wounded while chasing some suspects in Manghopir on Thursday evening, after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility.
While Karachi police chief Azad Khan said he did not consider the TTP claim as credible, a recently retired senior counter-terrorism official believed that the incident had hallmarks of an act of terrorism and that TTP remnants had remained active in the area in the past.
Constable Khadim Ali Shah was martyred while Constable Muhammad Tufail Khan wounded when armed motorcyclists fired at them near Hub Canal.
West Zone DIG Irfan Baloch had ruled out terrorism and said that the policemen were chasing robbers who opened fire to evade arrest.
Investigators are probing the case from all possible angles, says Karachi police chief
However, on Friday, the Manghopir police registered a case on the complaint of the wounded policeman against unknown persons under Sections 302 (premediated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
An official of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) told Dawn that the banned TTP had claimed responsibility for the attack on social media, but not from their usual account used to make such claims.
Talking to Dawn, the city police chief said he did not consider the TTP claim as ‘credible’ as ‘facts’ suggested the attack was carried out by “criminals who reacted when the policemen attempted to stop them”.
He said investigators were looking into the incident from every possible aspect and were waiting for the report of a forensic lab to ascertain as to whether the same weapons were used in other crimes.
However, recently retired counter-terrorism official Raja Umer Khattab considered it a targeted attack linked with terrorism.
“I do consider it as an act of terrorism as the TTP remnants had remained active in the area in the past,” he told Dawn.
He said that both the attackers were armed. “One fired 11 bullets while the second fired four bullets. Firing so many shots from two separate pistols in a deserted area could not be considered as an act by street criminals,” he said.
Khattab explained that street criminals usually operate in populated areas to find their prey. “In view of the firing of multiple shots and the subsequent claim by the TTP, this case bore all the hallmarks of terrorism,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Karachi police chief said that the martyred constable’s father was also a retired police official.
He said the family took the coffin to their hometown in district Shikarpur for burial.
Separately, Inspector General of Police Javed Alam Odho inquired after the health of the wounded policeman at the Aga Khan University Hospital. Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2026
