While the military has been fighting militancy in the turbulent tribal areas, sectarian violence, a strain of that militancy, has been on the rise elsewhere in the country. Targeted killings are the hallmark of the menace, which, sadly, has also arrived in Rawalpindi.

So far this year, malevolent elements have targeted 13 people in the garrison city. Of them seven died of the unidentified assassins’ bullets. The dead included two Muhafiz Force personnel who were gunned down as they gave chase to men who came to attack an Imambargah in Sadiqabad locality.

Rawalpindi police are alarmed at the wave of targeted attacks and think splinter groups of the militant Teheek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) could be behind this murderous madness. But they have not been able to identify or reach any suspect.

Regional Police Officer Akhtar Umar Hayat Laleka told Dawn that some among the hundreds of the militants killed during the Zarbe Azb Operation were believed to have been involved in the killing of policemen standing guard at the Imambargah Dhoke Syedan on December 30, 2013.

Officer Laleka added that investigations into the recent targeted killing of two policemen outside the Sadiqabad Imambargah also lead to TTP splinter groups.

Asked if these groups were present in Rawalpindi, he said: “Obviously. There are many individuals here who have links with the banned outfits. We have been trying to identify the splinter groups who could be involved in the targeted killings.”

Such malevolent elements first struck in the city this year on February 21, when five gunmen targeted four cloth merchants and killed a fifth person also by their indiscriminate firing.

Three of the merchants they came for died on the spot while the two other victims died in a hospital.

Initially the city police claimed it was a case of old enmity but could not establish that before the joint investigation team, which comprised of intelligence, police and counter-terrorism department officials. Nor the investigation team could reach the five killers who escaped on two motorcycles without a trace.

Just 10 days later, the next target killing took place in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed where a young student Abu Bakr was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen riding on a motorcycle. The young man was on his way home after offering Maghrib prayers in a mosque. The police have been unable to trace the killers till now.

On May 5, Mufti Muhammad Imran was shot dead and Musarrat Abbasi injured in a targeted attack by four gunmen in New Lalazar Colony. The attack was attributed to old enmity and two of the attackers, identified by the injured Abbasi, were arrested. Their other two collaborators remain at large.

Muhammad Nasir Abbasi, moazin (prayer caller) of a local mosque, became the next victim of target killers the same month. He was going with Muhammad Ishtiaq to Saddar from Cricket stadium Road after attending a seminar, when four gunmen waylaid them. Moazin Abbasi, 27, died at the spot but Ishtiaq escaped with injuries and is being treated.

On June 24, Izharul Haq Farooqi, leader of the Rawalpindi chapter of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) religious group, was gunned down by two motorcycle riders in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed. The same day Qari Saifullah, 36, treasurer of ASWJ, and Muhammad Aslam Shakir, 22, a khateeb (preacher) were shot dead by four target killers near Dhamial camp.

Motorcycles are the favourite transport for drive-by killers and street criminals as they provide easy get-away. A large number of motorcycles running on city roads are found without registration plates or violating traffic rules with impunity. The few traffic police wardens on duty or patrolling the streets watch them helplessly zoom by.

A senior police officer suggested the former City Police Officer to launch a campaign to stop the use of motorcycles in crime but it remained just a suggestion. RPO Laleka is just happy that there had been no case of extortion and kidnapping for ransom so far this year.

It must be appreciated though that the police and the Rawalpindi administration succeeded in ensuring a violence-free Muharram and Ashura this year, albeit with help from the army and the Rangers. Otherwise the citizens were living in fear of a repeat of last year’s bloody sectarian violence on this occasion, or a terrorist attack.

Published in Dawn, November 15th , 2014