Karachi: Two unknown gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot dead a senior lawyer of the Sindh High Court (SHC) who was pleading the case of missing Mutthaida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, prompting lawyers to boycott the courts on Wednesday.
Senior lawyer Syed Hasnain Shah Bukhari, the police said, was about to get into his car this morning at his residence in Korangi, when the two masked assailants opened fire on him. Three of the bullets hit Bukhari’s head.
Initial police investigations indicated that sectarian motives could be behind the murder.
The police found the empty shell of a 9mm pistol from the spot and sent them for forensic tests.
The murder of Bukhari enraged the lawyers’ fraternity who boycotted the proceedings of the courts in Karachi today. Karachi Bar Association (KBA) convened a meeting to device plan to stop killings of the professionals in the city.
MQM chief Altaf Hussan in a statement condemned the brutal murder of the lawyer, who was a member of the party’s legal aid committee. He said that instead of forming conventional investigative commissions or committees, the government should ensure dispensation of justice to the family of Bukhari.
Hussain further said that Bukhari was the active lawyer who submitted the largest number of cases into the courts with regard to the missing people.
The party chief also criticised the intelligence agencies asking them as to what they had to say about the murder of the Bukhari.
Haider Abbas Rizvi, one of the senior MQM leader addressing a press conference in Karachi said that the extremist sectarian groups were targeting the party supporters and workers who belonged to the Shiite community.
This week two MQM workers from the minority Shiite sect were also gunned down in Orangi Town area in the western district.
