KARACHI, Jan 9: At least 102 people fell prey to terrorism in the year 2001 as compared to 84 people in the year 2000, according to the reported statistics.

Those who were made target included Ulema, doctors, activists of religious and political parties and government officials.

Eleven people were killed in January, 10 in February, three in March, two in April, 11 in May, eight in June, nine in July, three in August, 13 in September, 19 in October, nine in November and four in December.

Those killed in the year 2001 included Ehteshamuddin Haider, brother of Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider; Chief of Sunni Tehreek Maulana Saleem Qadri; Iranian religious scholar Aga Shaikh Mohammad Sultani, 60; Pakistan State Oil Managing Director Shaukat Raza Mirza; Ministry of Defence Research and Laboratories Director Syed Zafar Hussain Zaidi; Alamgir Welfare Trust Chief Anwar Naseem Chandna; philanthropist and businessman Haji Abdur Razzak Tasty; Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Inayatullah, Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Hameedur Rehman and Mufti Mohammad Iqbal of Jamia Farooqia Shah Faisal Colony.

Although the Sindh government spends over Rs6 billion annually to maintain law and order in the province, the trained police force and other law-enforcement agencies, equipped with sophisticated weapons, remained powerless to curb terrorism-related incidents and provide security to the tax-payers and law-abiding citizens.

The terrorists faced more or less no resistance in October as they killed 19 people. The months of September, January, May and February also witnessed an increasing tendency in the terrorism incidents.

Dawn interviewed a number of police officials and most of them were not in favour of taking initiatives to apprehend terrorists on the spot and counter terrorist activity.

“It is right that we are responsible for maintaining law and order and providing security to the citizens but who will take care of my family if I am shot dead while nabbing the terrorists,” asked a police official.

The officials were of the view that the families of those policemen who had lost their lives in the line of duty had been waiting for monetary compensation for the past several years. The high-ups in the police department and the government had been talking about introducing police reforms to root out corruption and improve the image of the police among the citizens but they always ignored the ground realities.

When asked why they were in the police department when they were fed up with their jobs, the policemen argued that if they quit the job, they did not have academic qualification or “other” qualities to join any other organization.

They said departmental action was always initiated against the policemen from the rank of constables to inspectors. There are a few cases when a DSP level officer was given even minor punishment.

The officials said the involvement of SPs and DSPs in irregularities, tempering the case investigation, misappropriation of funds, etc could not be ruled out but the irony was that they were made the investigating officers who prepared reports implicating their subordinates.

Punishment to the subordinates could never root out corruption in the police department. There are a number of police officers whose integrity and reputation was dubious and they were working at sensitive posts, the low-ranking officials alleged.

“If I know that my immediate boss is corrupt and he forces me to support him in his corrupt practices, I have no choice except to follow his orders. If I defy his orders, I will be placed under suspension, demoted or dismissed and nobody is there in police high-ups to listen to my grievances,” said a dejected assistant sub-inspector.

About police reforms, they said when there were no funds to meet the recurring expenses of a police station and the staff of a police station was forced to run the affairs on ‘self-help’ basis, the police would remain misusing its powers and extorting money from citizens to meet the recurring expenses of police stations, filling in fuel in mobile vans, etc. They said it was the responsibility of the staff of a police station to arrange funds for printing of an FIR book, which was supposed to be the most important document of registered crimes.

In the year 2000, 84 people were killed in terrorists activities in the city as compared to 85 in the year 1999.

Those killed in the year 2000 included Iqbal Raad, former advocate general of the Sindh High Court; Syed Waqar Hussain Naqvi, a TJP leader; Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, an eminent Muslim scholar; Maulana Athar Qureshi, a homeopath doctor and president of Tehreek-i-Islami Sindh, Balochistan.

SOME INCIDENTS IN 2001: Five people, including three religious scholars, were assassinated on January 28, in an ambush in Shah Faisal Colony. They were identified as Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Inayatullah, 70; Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Hameedur Rehman, 50; Mufti Mohammad Iqbal, 60; Talha Iqbal, 12; son of Mufti Iqbal, and the driver of the van Abdul Hameed, 40.

Six people, including Chief of Sunni Tehreek Maulana Saleem Qadri, were assassinated and three others wounded when unidentified armed men opened indiscriminate fire on their vehicle in Baldia Town on May 18.

On Jan 20, an Iranian religious scholar Aga Shaikh Mohammad Sultani, 60, was on his way home in his Suzuki Hi-roof (CB-0354) when unidentified men shot him dead near Dr Ziauddin Hospital in North Nazimabad.

On May 31, Dr Raza Mehdi Jafri, was shot dead in front of his ENT General Clinic in Block-16 Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

On June 16, Dr Syed Asad Ali Bukhari, 42, was killed in his Ali Clinic in Faquir Colony, Orangi Town.

Dr Mohammad Raza Pirani fell prey to terrorism on June 25, when he was about to leave his Shamsher Clinic at Soldier Bazaar No2.

On July 26, the managing director of the Pakistan State Oil, Shaukat Raza Mirza, and his driver, were shot dead by two masked assailants on Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman Road, in Clifton.

The director research and laboratories, ministry of defence, Syed Zafar Hussain Zaidi, 59, was shot dead in an ambush by three unidentified motorcyclists near his Nazimabad residence on July 30.

The same day, Anwar Naseem Chandna, 68, the chief of one of country’s major social welfare organisation, Alamgir Welfare Trust, was shot dead at Bahadurabad. Earlier in the day, an elderly businessman Syed Hamid Ali Rizvi, 70, was shot dead in Khayaban-i-Shaheen. He was the father of Mehmood Rizvi, country head of a satellite TV channel.

Mansoob Ali Qureshi advocate was shot dead on Sept 15 soon after he had come out of his office in Aram Bagh.

Gul Zaman, 60, senior lawyer, was shot dead near his residence close to the Anti-Narcotics police station in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block 7, on Sept 20.

A philanthropist and businessman, Haji Abdur Razzak Tasty, was shot dead on Sept 25 in SITE.

On Oct 4, six worshippers were shot dead and seven wounded, two of them seriously, at an Imambargah in Mehmoodabad.

On Oct 6, four people were shot dead and seven others wounded, two of them seriously, when the unidentified men fired at two Madaris in Buffer Zone in North Karachi.

On Dec 21, Ehteshamuddin Haider, the elder brother of Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, was shot dead near Fatimid Foundation in Soldier Bazar.