NOVANEWS
Posted by: All Fateh
Zahra Shahid Hussain can be seen in white in this photo. – Courtesy Insaf.pk
KARACHI: Vice-President of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf’s Sindh chapter, Zahra Shahid Hussain was killed late on Saturday night during an attempted robbery incident on the eve of re-polls in Karachi’s much debated NA-250 constituency, DawnNews reported.
According to police, three motorcycle riders tried to steal Hussain’s hand bag and opened fire upon resistance by the PTI leader outside her residence in Defence Housing Authority Phase-4.
Senior police officer Nasir Aftab said the incident is apparently a purse snatching attempt, which has gone wrong. However, he added that further investigation would reveal more facts. He said all three gunmen escaped after the attack.
“She thought they wanted to snatch her purse and handed it over to them but they killed her,” said PTI leader Firdous Shamim.
PTI chief Imran Khan and spokesperson Shireen Mazari have condemned the brutal killing of their party leader and demanded swift arrest of the culprits.
Mazari has declared the incident as terrorism and failure on part of the provincial government. Imran Khan had requested the government to take action against Altaf Hussain for issuing threatening and provoking statements to incite violence in the country, but the government did not take any timely action, Shireen added.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has also condemned the killing. However, PTI chairman Imran Khan has blamed Altaf Hussain for Zahra’s killing in Karachi.
In a tweet, the PTI chief has said that he holds Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the killing as he (Altaf) openly threatened the PTI activists and leader through public broadcasts. Khan, in another tweet, also held British government responsible for the ‘murder’ of Zahra Shahid as he said that he had warned them about British citizen (Hussain) after his open threats to PTI workers’ lives.
The PTI chief has also announced to launch a nation-wide protest against the unruly conduct of Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
PTI leader and electoral candidate for NA-250 Arif Alvi said Zahra Shahid received two bullets wounds on her head. She was attached with the party for past 16 years, he added.
Meanwhile, an investigation team of Karachi police has reached National Medical Centre, where Zahra Shahid had been brought for treatment. SSP CID Fayyaz Khan is heading the probe team.
The MQM has called for an urgent meeting of the party’s Rabita Committee over the incident. Party leader Wasay Jalil said Imran Khan has wrongly alleged his party chief in haste.
The London Metropolitan police had launched an investigation against the MQM chief on Wednesday following complaints by hundreds of British and Pakistani citizens.
In a speech televised across various media channels Sunday night, Altaf Hussain demanded to separate Karachi from the rest of Pakistan if the public mandate of his party was not acceptable to the ‘establishment.’ However, Hussain’s party later clarified saying it was taken out of context.
Hussain in the said speech used threatening language saying his party workers will teach the PTI protesters at Teen Talwar a lesson if he orders them to do so. He also threatened to break arms of those who are hatching conspiracies against MQM. He had directed the party activists to prepare themselves mentally for his next call. “I am about to set free my enraged followers if opposition against our party is not stopped,” he added.
Zahra Shahid Hussain was the former president of the party’s Sindh Women’s wing. She was one of the founding members of the PTI also.
