KARACHI: Some people belonging to what was described as rival religious groups fought with each other on Sunday in a dispute over a mosque in Clifton’s Block-8, officials said.

The groups belonging to the Barelvi and the Deobandi schools of thought initially had a heated argument over members of the mosque’s management committee and then resorted to firing into the air, said South SSP Dr Mohammad Farooq Ahmed.

The officer said that the dispute between the groups over Moti Masjid management was going on for more than eight months.

Contingents of police rushed to the spot and fired shots into the air to disperse the embattled groups, said the SSP.
However, he added, the police had received no report about anyone getting wounded.

Later on, members of the Sunni Tehreek staged a sit-in on the main Chaudhry Khaliquz Zaman Road near Punjab Chowrangi which resulted in a traffic jam. The traffic flow was diverted to alternate routes.

The sit-in continued till the filing of this report late on Sunday evening.

The South SSP said that the situation was brought under control while talks were under way with the participants in the sit-in to clear the road.

‘BLA man’ found shot dead

A purported member of the banned Baloch Liberation Army was found shot dead in Pak Colony on Sunday, police said.

They added that suspects kidnapped 45-year-old Nasir Behram and killed him somewhere and later on threw his body in Hasan Oliya village near Lyari River.

“The deceased belonged to the BLA,” claimed Pak Colony SHO Aslam Baloch. He was also a drug peddler and hit man, the officer claimed. His two accomplices had recently been killed by Rangers in an ‘encounter’, the officer added.

The murder appeared to be an outcome of the turf war between supposed rival gangs in the area, he added.

The SHO claimed that recently the deceased had killed two members of a gang led by Jamil Changha and Ahmed Ali Magsi and his murder might be its reaction.

Man found shot dead

A man was found shot dead in Surjani Town on Sunday evening, police said.

They added that the body was recovered from bushes near Zero Point.

A single bullet was fired on his head. It appeared that the man was killed somewhere else and later his body was thrown there on early Sunday as no bullet casing was found there, said Surjani SHO Imtiaz Mirjat.

The victim sported a beard. The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Inquiry against policemen

Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal on Sunday took notice of alleged involvement of certain police officers in patronising gambling dens.

He appointed DIG of administration Sultan Khowaja to hold an inquiry into the allegations and submit a report to him within five days, a spokesperson for the police said.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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