TJP leader shot dead in Peshawar
In a renewed incident of sectarian violence, a prominent leader of the Tehreek-e-Jafaria Pakistan (TJP) Anwar Ali Akhunzada was shot dead yesterday soon after he stepped out of his residence in Peshawar.
In a renewed incident of sectarian violence, a prominent leader of the Tehreek-e-Jafaria Pakistan (TJP) Anwar Ali Akhunzada was shot dead yesterday soon after he stepped out of his residence in Peshawar.
The bullets hit the secretary general of the Shiite political party in the head and chest. He was rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital in critical condition almost immediately but he died there from multiple wounds. Akhunzada was sprayed with bullets soon after he left his home for a nearby Internet Club in the city's Kohati Bazar, police said.
The victim was going to the cybercafe when three armed men, who according to eyewitnesses were hiding close by, opened fire on him and then fled. Yesterday's killing came at a time when Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf was in Peshawar. Meanwhile the interior minister has directed the police to conduct investigation into the incident and send the ministry a report as soon as possible.
Agencies have been alerted and the government has pledged to arrest the killers. A police official said investigations were underway to determine the motive behind the killing."It could be a terrorist attack or sectarian violence," he said.
The killing came after several weeks of relative calm. More than 300 people have been killed in sectarian attacks in Pakistan over the past three years. Police officials blame the attacks on militants from the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslim communities.
Akhunzada was killed exactly a year after he assumed office of the TJP secretary general after the murder of Khurshid Anwar Advocate in Dera Ismael Khan who previously held the post of TJP secretary general. The recent killing has, however, raised alarm bells for the authorities as the Shiite organisation announced protest demonstrations all over Pakistan today.
"We announce a seven-day mourning in Punjab at this ghastly murder of our leader," TJP Punjab president Sibtain Kazmi said in a statement and brought the military government under scathing criticism for its failure to protect the TJP leader. "He had been receiving death threats and we had brought this to the notice of the military authorities but they stand exposed," Kazmi said.
The TJP chief Sajid Naqvi is currently in Damascus and has instructed his followers to show restraint. But authorities fear a backlash from the group as the TJP announced that the burial of the slain leader will be held Friday (today). It has given a call for protests in Peshawar immediately after the burial.
