Karachi News

Four killed in Baldia mosque shoot-out Tuesday, October 28, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi Around 20 to 22 unidentified criminals, armed with lethal weapons, broke into the Moachko area on Monday afternoon, threatened the residents to leave the area and later went to a mosque in the locality and killed two Pesh Imams and two worshipers inside. Qari Alam Zaib, the Pesh Imam, Qari Shams, the Naib-Peshimam, and two worshippers, Mohammed Kamal and Abdul Malik were shot dead by the criminals. According to SSP, SITE Town, Mohammed Ali Wasaan, the incident was reported inside the Jamia Siddiq-i-Akber, situated in Qaim Khani Colony and the incident occurred about 5.45 p.m. when the worshippers and Pesh Imam were offering Asr prayers. He added that the violence was part of a clash between two groups over possession of some land in the area. After the prayers, some unidentified people, who witnesses claimed belonged to a political group, came and opened indiscriminate fire within the mosque and killed the four men, and fled. Corroborating the police version, the residents and worshippers in the area said that they had heard, from various circles, that two groups were fighting for possession of a piece of land in Pakistan Bazaar and Mominabad areas, which had resulted in a heavy gun-battle. Later in the afternoon, they had been informed that the matter was resolved as a heavy contingency of police and Rangers controlled the area. However, after Asr prayers concluded and worshippers were returning from the mosque, around 22 persons, posing as members of a political group, came and threatened them to leave the area or face dire consequences. In the meantime, the criminals headed for the Jamia Siddiqi-i-Akber mosque and opened indiscriminate fire killing both Pesh Imams and two worshippers and fled by firing in the air and threatening those around them to move out of the way. After the incident, the residents blocked the road to vehicular traffic and started protesting. The bodies kept lying inside the mosque for hours. Only after Maghreb prayers were the bodies shifted to hospital mortuaries. The protesters alleged that the killers were not Muslims. The mob turned violent and started pelting vehicles with stones and burning tyres. Later, a heavy contingency of police and Rangers reached the spot and, after hours of struggle, dispersed the mob. The police said that, the deceased Pesh Imams Qari Alam and Qari Shams were from Gilgit. Worshippers Mohammed Kamal and Abdul Malik were the residents of the area, labourers by profession, and belonged to the NWFP. A case was reported at the police station. Till the filing of this report a tense situation prevailed in Baldia Town, Moachko and Saeedabad areas with reports of sporadic aerial firing and shops remaining closed.