KARACHI: Another deputy superintendent of police was gunned down in a Landhi locality on Tuesday, officials said.

DSP Majeed Abbas, 53, was the third DSP targeted in a short span of four weeks in the city.

The officials said that DSP Abbas was driving a police mobile van and heading to his office when four gunmen riding two motorbikes intercepted his vehicle in Zafar Town within the jurisdiction of the Shah Latif police station and fired multiple shots at him.

“He was hit by five bullets all fired from a very close range,” said DIG-East Munir Sheikh. “The attackers most probably used 9mm pistols and rode away after the attack. Initial findings suggest that the assailants were four in number but we are not yet sure.”

He said that some eyewitnesses saw four men on two motorbikes after they heard firing.

The wounded DSP died while being taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Dr Seemin Jamali, the head of the JPMC’s emergency department, said that he was brought dead to the hospital.

“DSP Abbas was posted as acting SP-SITE. He was alone in the vehicle when he was attacked,” city police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo told reporters after visiting the crime scene.

He claimed that the police had enough evidence to identify the group behind the recent killings of the policemen. “A breakthrough has already been made in the investigations of other policemen killing cases and we are determined to catch DSP Abbas’s killers as well very soon.”

On May 1, DSP Abdul Fatah Sangri along with his guard and driver was shot dead in a gun attack close to the area where DSP Abbasi was attacked.

On May 9, DSP Zulfiqar Zaidi along with his driver was shot dead in Shah Faisal Colony.

On May 15, SP Ejaz Haider, a former jailer of the Hyderabad central prison, met the same fate in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

The police claimed to have identified the group involved in the killings of its officers — all of them were targeted in the East zone of the Karachi police.

With threats ranging from terrorist attacks to deadly gun battles with gangsters, street criminals and hit men associated with political groups looming large, the Karachi police have been passing through a challenging phase of their history.

The institution has lost more than 50 personnel in the first six months of 2015.

However, the police released photographs of two men, said to be associated with a banned militant outfit, for their alleged involvement in the recent killings of law-enforcement agency’s personnel.

“The police record suggests that the two militants were involved in several killings and they mainly targeted policemen in Karachi East and Malir districts. Efforts are being made for their early arrest,” said an official.

PM, Zardari and Bilawal condemn killing

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the killing of another police officer in Karachi and sought an immediate report of the incident.

He also issued directives to the provincial administration and police to speed up investigations into the recent killings of policemen.

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the killing of DSP Abbasi.

They directed the Sindh government and the chief minister to make all-out efforts to arrest the killers.

They eulogised the sacrifices and services of the Sindh police, its officers and personnel and said that the nation was proud of them.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2015

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