Former banker shot dead, two attackers arrested

A former banker and relative of a former judge Sindh High Court Zawar Hussain, was shot dead in the limits of Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station on Friday, while two of the attackers were arrested by a police party after a brief encounter. According to police sources, the victim, who was identified as Zain-ul-Abiden, son of Noor-ul-Abiden, was gunned down when he was waiting for Justice Zawar Hussain outside his residence to go with him for Friday prayers.
They said the incident took place in Block 5, Gulshan Iqbal where seven unidentified attackers came on motorbike and a car, having fake registration no of AUT-209. They attackers opened fire on Zain. Resultantly, he received eight bullets and succumbed to his injures on the way to hospital. After committing the crime, the attackers, who were trying to escape from the scene, rammed their car into the wall when they were intercepted by a police patrolling party. Thereafter, the killers came out from the car and opened indiscriminate fire on the police van, which retaliated.
After a brief encounter, two of the attacker identified as Jameel and Munir were injured and arrested by the police while their other accomplices managed to escape under the cover of heavy firing. SSP Jam Zafar Dharejo said the deceased, who was a retired banker and an old friend of Justice Zawar Hussain was presently doing his own business. He said the victim also came under attack two days ago. He said it was premature to say anything about the attackers as investigation was under way.
SHO Dost Muhammad said the police had recovered two triple-2 riffles, one Kalashnikov, one TT pistol, a wimple, bottles of combustible substance and several rounds from their possession. He said the detained accused, who hailed from Multan, were handed over to CID police for further investigation. Meanwhile, senior investigators termed the incident as sectarian killing, saying that seven attackers took part in this crime, of them, two were Punjabi speaking while rest of them were Pashtoon.
They suspected that one of the banned outfits might be involved in the incident. Moreover, they said the culprits reached at the spot in a car while two armed motorcyclists were giving cover to them and added that the car, which had a fake number plate at the time of incident, was owned by a Rent-A-Car owner Saleem with AGP-663 registration. Meanwhile, Manzar Hussain Mehdi, a close friend of deceased said the victim was a retired banker and was doing his own business. He said that his funeral prayer was offered at Ancholi Imam Bagh and later he was buried in Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard.