MITH: A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) activist, Chandar Sharma, was shot dead in Mithi on Saturday by a lone assailant riding a motorcycle.

Sharma, 38, was a senior party activist currently serving as personal secretary to MNA Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani. Previously, he held the post of information secretary of the party’s Tharparkar chapter.

Political circles in Mithi ruled out his murder on political grounds, suggesting that some personal enmity might have cost him his life.

Sharma was sitting at the shop of his friend, Nawaz Baghi, near Sadiq Fakeer Ground in Mithi when he was shot by a man riding a motorcycle, people of the area said. The assailant sped away after committing the murder, they said.

The victim was rushed to the Mithi Civil Hospital but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

A wave of grief swept through Mithi, Islamkot, Chelhar and several other towns of Tharparkar as the news of the murder spread like a wildfire. A complete shutdown was observed in Mithi and many of the towns to mourn his death.

Tharparkar SSP Imran Quraishi told this reporter that the killer was identified through footages of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and eyewitness accounts. He said that a hunt for him was under way.

The SSP, however, cautioned that it would be too early to say anything about a motive behind the murder.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a statement issued in Islamabad and Karachi strongly condemned the murder and asked the Sindh government to ensure arrest of the killer(s). He lauded the deceased activist’s services and condoled his death with his family.

Dr Malani, Qasim Siraj Soomro, Comrade Nandlal Malhi and other PPP leaders also condemned the murder and offered their condolences to the bereaved family. They announced three-day mourning in the district.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018