Judge gunned down in Quetta

QUETTA: Unidentified armed men shot dead Environmental Tribunal Judge Sakhi Sultan in his office in Shahbaz Town here on Friday morning.

Police officials said that two unknown armed men entered the office of the Environmental Protection Tribunal at around 10:45am and targeted the judge, Sakhi Sultan, with automatic weapons. Sultan sustained serious injuries while the attackers fled.

Sakhi Sultan, who had also been an activist of PPP, was rushed to the Civil Hospital but succumbed to his injuries before any treatment could be provided to him.The cause behind the cold blooded murder is yet to be ascertained. However, police believe that it was a target killing.

Soon after the incident, police officials rushed to the spot and started a probe. Seniors lawyers, office bearers of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association and the deceased judge’s family gathered at the hospital. Moving scenes were witnessed in the hospital.

Sakhi Sultan had also worked as a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and High Court. Presently, he was discharging his duties as a judge of the Environmental Tribunal. In the past, he had been associated with the PPP and served as member of the central committee of PPP.

The office-bearers of the Balochistan Bar Association have strongly condemned the killing of Sakhi Sultan and announced three days of mourning against the cold-blooded murder of the judge.

Our correspondent adds from Islamabad: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Friday strongly condemned the killing of Sakhi Sultan in Quetta and demanded of the government to take urgent measures for nabbing the culprits.

Soon after his gruesome killing, SCBA President Kamran Murtaza strongly condemned the assassination of Sakhi Sultan and demanded of the government to take speedy measures for arresting the culprits.

“We are going to give a call for strike across the country and will ask the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) as well as bar councils in the provinces to boycott the court proceedings,” Kamran Murtaza told reporters at his office in the Supreme Court.

He recalled that he had already demanded of the government to ensure ample security to the judges and lawyers across the country keeping in view the prevailing law and order situation. However, he said, both the federal and provincial governments failed to take into account his request.

Meanwhile, it was reported that soon after the killing of Sakhi Sultan, the Pakistan Bar Council, Balochistan High Court and Balochistan Bar Association announced mourning and boycott of court proceedings for two days.

President of Balochistan Bar Association Bilal Anwar Kasi and President of Balochistan High Court Bar Mir Zahoor Shahwani strongly condemned the killing of Sakhi Sultan and said the lawyers would boycott court proceedings on Monday and Tuesday.

Karachi: Two gunned down in Gulistan-e-Jauhar

KARACHI: Two people were killed when unknown armed men opened fire on a shop in Gulistan-e-Johar area of the city on Saturday.

According to police, the deceased were identified as Hyder Abbas and Qaisar Abbas. Police have launched an investigation into the killing.

Taliban 'master bomber' gunned down amid deadly infighting

NEW YORK: A suicide bombing "mastermind" in the Pakistan Taliban has been gunned down and killed in the country's northeastern tribal region, just days after a major faction in the militant group announced it was breaking away over ideological differences, says a US TV report.

Gunmen riding in a car attacked Ashiqullah Mehsud, a senior commander in the leadership of the group known formally as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in the village of Urmuz in North Waziristan on Thursday before speeding off, sources told US TV.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, while the TTP has yet to issue a statement.

Mehsud was viewed as a successor to Qari Hussain Mehsud, the militant group's explosives expert whose notoriety includes allegedly recruiting children as suicide bombers.

The Pakistan Taliban has been beset with months of deadly infighting, culminating in an announcement early this month by the group's Mehsud faction that it would be going its own way after failing to convince the leadership to give up what it said were "un-Islamic" practices, such as attacks in public places, extortion and kidnappings.

It's the first split since the TTP -- a coalition of militant groups -- was founded in 2007, seeking to establish its version of sharia law across Pakistan, the report said.

Tensions within the TTP escalated after the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November last year, setting off a power struggle among top commanders of the TTP that led to violent clashes in which dozens of people were killed.

Appointed by a tribal council, Mullah Fazlullah has stood at the helm of the TPP since Mehsud's death. He hails from the country's Swat valley and is the first TTP leader who is not a Mehsud. He has struggled to contain the internal frictions among the group's factions, especially those within the Mehsud tribe, which makes up the majority of the TTP.

In a statement released last month, Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the breakaway Mehsuds, said the TTP leadership had "fallen into the hands of a bunch of conspirators ... involved in criminal activities like robbery and extortion."

 

Four including 3 women gunned down in Swat

SWAT: Four persons were killed when unknown culprits opened fire in a house in Buner District of Swat on Monday morning, Geo News reported.

According to police, the incident occurred in Palwari area of Buner where unknown armed assailants opened fire in a house that killed three women and a man.

The ferocious incident didn’t end here. The brutal murderers set the bodies along with the house on fire after killing their targets.

Police reached the incident site and initiated investigation.

Two gunned down in Karachi

KARACHI: Two people including a doctor were killed when unknown armed men opened fire in Orangi Town and Hussainabad areas of the city on Thursday.

Police said that the slain doctor was identified as Doctor Hassan Ali Qureshi who hailed from Sukker. The doctor had been serving at a local hospital.

A man identified as Zahid was gunned down in Orangi Town area of the city.

Five gunned down in Karachi

KARACHI: Unknown gunmen opened fire on a shop on Shahra-e-Faisal, killing at least three people, Geo News reported late Sunday night.

Police said that the gunmen opened fire on a confectioner’s shop located near Drig Road on Shahra-e-Faisal.

A spokesman for the Ahle-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat said their legal adviser Amjid and two other activists were targeted in the attack.

The ASWJ condemned the killings and called for an action against the perpetrators. The bodies were shifted to a nearby hospital.

Two other people were shot dead in other parts of the city, police said.

Lawyer Ghulam Haider gunned down in Karachi

KARACHI: Another incident of firing claimed one more life as a lawyer was shot dead on Jehangir Road in Karachi on Friday.

According to police, the incident took place when unidentified assailants opened fire at a car, killing the lawyer.

The police said that the deceased is identified as Ghulam Haider, who was an Assistant Director at Insurance Ombudsman Office in NAB.

Five gunned down in Karachi attacks

Karachi: Five people were gunned down in the city on Wednesday in a new wave of sectarian killings that had already claimed two lives a day earlier. Besides, a police constable and an Awami National Party activist were among four other people killed in the city.Three seminary students were shot dead near Darul Sakoon madrassah in Block 14 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Seven of a family gunned down in Shikarpur

SHIKARPUR: In a gruesome incident due to old enmity seven persons of the same family including two women were gunned down at Lakhi Ghulam Shah area in the limit of Rustam police station here, Geo News reported Sunday morning.

Police said that the two groups of Marfani community are at war for several years and in continuation of that an armed gang of one group storming into the house of the other group opened indiscriminate firing that killed seven inmates including two women, while one was severely injured.

The bodies and the injured person have been shifted to the Shikarpur Government Hospital.

Police registering a report of the incident have started legal actions.