KARACHI: In a second such incident during the past three days, a man was injured in an explosion near an Imambargah in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Thursday evening, fanning fear in the city despite tight security for Muharram, officials said.

Separately, a police officer was shot dead soon after he left his place of duty at an Imambargah in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The attack, as an official described it, might be aimed at frightening off the policemen deployed for security there.

In another incident, a shopkeeper was gunned down in the Ferozabad area.

In Gulistan-i-Jauhar, attackers riding a motorcycle threw a cracker, which landed near a sabeel outside the Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen Imambargah near Kamran Chowrangi, said Karachi-East SSP Syed Pir Mohammed Shah.

He said a man was injured in the incident. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he was given first medical aid and allowed to go home.

However, a spokesperson for the Majlis Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen (MWM) said a child and woman were also injured in the explosion.

“Five policemen were posted at the Imambargah for security, but the cracker attack took place on the main road where a sabeel was set up,” added the senior police officer.

“The cracker explosion might have been aimed at creating fear and panic,” said Pir Mohammed Shah.

This was the second such incident near an Imambargah this Muharram in the city.

On Tuesday evening, an infant girl was killed and seven women and children were injured in a grenade attack outside an Imambargah in F. B Area’s Ayesha Manzil when they were returning home after attending a Majlis.

Women and children were leaving the Islamic Research Centre Imambargah, at Ayesha Manzil, when two men riding a motorcycle hurled a hand grenade at them from the nearby bridge.

The city police chief had claimed that police and Rangers personnel had been deployed at the Imambargah, and as the grenade landed near a Rangers vehicle, it might have been the actual target of the attackers.

Police officer shot dead

A police officer was shot dead in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Thursday evening, according to Aziz Bhatti police.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Qalandar Bakhsh, 41, left after performing his duty at the Imambargah Jamia Sibtain in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and was on his way home in the Hasan Square Police Quarters when gunmen on a motorcycle attacked him near the NIPA traffic intersection. He sustained a single bullet wound in the head, which proved fatal.

The suspects followed the ASI when he left the Imambargah and targeted him near the traffic intersection, said Gulshan-i-Iqbal SP Abid Qaimkhani.

He said the attackers by killing the police officer might have wanted to scare the policemen deployed for Imambargahs security during Muharram.

The victim originally hailed from Naushahro Feroze.

Auto-parts dealer gunned down

An auto-parts dealer of Tariq Road was shot dead on Thursday evening in what an MWM official said was a ‘sectarian attack’. However, the police attributed the murder to extortion of money.

As Mehboob Rehmani, 55, closed his auto spare parts shop on Tariq Road and was on his way home in Soldier Bazaar in a car when armed motorcyclists attacked him on Shahrah-i-Quaideen near the busy Noorani Kabab House.

He sustained critical bullet wounds and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors declared him dead on arrival, said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency department of the JPMC.

Mr Rehmani sustained two bullet wounds in the head and chest.

According to SSP-East Syed Pir Mohammed Shah, the victim had received threats from criminal elements demanding payment of extortion. He had reported the matter to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee also.

“It appears that the murder was motivated by non-payment of bhatta and was not on sectarian grounds,” said the SSP.

However, an MWM spokesperson said the victim belonged to the Shia community and was targeted on sectarian grounds.

The spokesman said: “Targeted killings and explosions outside Imambargahs continue to take place in the metropolis as both the police and Rangers have failed to ensure proper security in the sensitive areas”.

He demanded deployment of army troops in the perceived sensitive localities of the city to ensure peace during Muharram.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014