Police officer, doctor shot dead in target killings

Islamabad: A police officer, a medical doctor and a son of a religious scholar have been shot dead in new incidents of targeted killings in Karachi, police and media reports said Tuesday.

Hit-and-run gunmen killed Mirza Khadim Hussain, son of Shia scholar Mirza Yusuf Hussain in Nazimabad area of the port city Monday night.

The same day, a police deputy superintendent Nawaz Ranjha was attacked and killed when he was on patrol duty in the area of M.A. Jinnah Road in Karachi. In Orangi Township of the port city, a medical doctor, identified as Najamul Hasan was shot dead in similar fashion.

Karachi witnessed a wave of violence and arson following the assassination of Mutahidda Qaumi Movement legislator Raza Haider on August 2, leaving dozens of people dead.

Paramilitary Rangers and police brought the situation under control and rounded up around 200 suspects, bringing about a lull in the cycle of targeted killings, which the new killings have shattered.

The government of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, has the killings were designed to stir up sectarian, ethnic and political tensions to destabilize the country’s financial and industrial hub.

In Islamabad the police chief warned Tuesday that terrorist were planning attacks on judges, members of parliament and police and military officials in the capital.

Inspector General Syed Kaleem Imam, speaking to reporters outside the parliament here said, said there was intelligence information about such terrorist plots.

Certain terrorist groups had also been making death threats to police officials and government figures, he said, adding that security had been beefed up at sensitive locations in the capital.