The fresh wave of terror surfaced just days after weeklong deadly clashes that were set off following the assassination of a provincial legislator earlier this month.
The killings sparked arson attacks in which two vehicles were set on fire in Orangi Town.
Business remained closed and transport stayed off the roads amid frequent gunshots that forced residents to stay indoors throughout the day. Life in the densely-populated town remained paralysed with least effort from security authorities to restore order and peace.
Early in the morning, three people in a taxi were attacked near the Banaras traffic intersection that left two of them, including the driver, dead.
The motive and the attackers remained unknown for the police, but they suspected it as fallout of the recent violence in different parts of the city.
“The number of attackers and their mode of transport are not clear,” said Inspector Raja Tariq, the SHO of the Orangi Town police station.
“The taxi was attacked near an area called Qasba Piri close to Banaras traffic intersection. The taxi driver who was in his early 50s died on the spot just minutes before an injured passenger succumbed to his wounds in a nearby hospital. The bodies have been shifted to the Edhi morgue after the medico-legal formalities for want of identification,” he said.
Almost in a similar attack on a public bus in the same area, a passenger who was later identified as Shan-i-Zar sustained bullet wounds and was shifted to the Civil Hospital, where his condition was described as critical.
The early morning attacks on people travelling in the public and the private vehicles continued and spilled over into adjoining areas.
“A young motorcyclist was attacked by armed men near the Valika stop when he was going to work on a motorbike bearing registration number KAK-0515,” said an official at the Site-A police station.
“Hit by three bullets, he died on the spot. Witnesses told us that they saw at least four armed men disappearing from the crime-scene on foot,” the police official said.
The young victim was later identified as Asif Iqbal, a resident of Chishti Nagar in Orangi Town’s Sector 11½.
The police later registered an FIR (693/2010) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against unidentified suspects on the complaint of the victim’s brother Yousuf Iqbal.
Most parts of the Orangi Town became tense as Asif’s body was brought to his home.
Uninterrupted gunfire in Ghaziabad, Raees Amrohvi Colony and other parts of the town forced shopkeepers to pull down the shutters. Transport also disappeared from roads.
A Suzuki pickup carrying a family was intercepted by armed men on two motorbikes near Raees Amrohvi Colony.
The men dragged the family out of the vehicle and tortured them and attempted to slaughter one of the youngsters among them before setting the four-wheeler on fire.
“Two young brothers were badly wounded in this incident,” said Sub-Inspector Umer Farooq, the SHO of the Pakistan Bazaar police station.
“They have been identified as Maqbool and Abid. They tried to slaughter Maqbool but he managed to escape with a cut on his neck. He has been shifted to the Civil Hospital in a critical condition.”
A large number of area people also took to main Shahra-i-Orangi and staged a protest against the administration for its failure to provide security to the public.
They chanted slogans against the police and Rangers. However, they dispersed after the police resorted to aerial firing and baton-charge.
Manzar Alam — a Ghaziabad resident in Orangi Town’s Sector 11½ — speaking to Dawn accused the police and Rangers of “deliberately providing an opportunity to miscreants for staging such deadly attacks”.
“It is beyond everyone’s understanding that strife-hit areas which are always vulnerable to violence in reaction to any incident in the city, are left abandoned by the law-enforcement agencies,” he said.
“The same situation emerged today [Saturday] when the armed men near the Banaras traffic intersection, Kati Pahari and Qasba areas faced little resistance in carrying out their nefarious activities,” he said.
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