LAHORE, SEP 7: Seven minority Shia Muslims, including a prominent community leader, have been shot dead by four unidentified men in Pakistan’s Punjab province. According to eyewitnesses, four armed men on two motorcycles reached the house of Shia leader Syed Fazilat Shah alias Phool Shah at Jasoki village in Gujrat district of Punjab yesterday. Shah was sitting with his family members and followers when the assailants opened indiscriminate fire on them, killing him, his son, son-in-law, two grandsons and two of his followers on the spot, they said. Five persons were also injured in the attack and they were shifted to a nearby hospital where the condition of three of them is stated to be critical. The attackers managed to escape. District Police Officer Ali Nasir Rizvi said that police were investigating all the aspects including sectarian. A Shia organisation — Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) — has alleged that armed militants of banned outfits — Punjabi Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan — were behind the attack. The group said since the Bhakkar sectarian clash few weeks ago, the activists of SSP had killed two Shia Muslims in Lahore and now seven in Gujrat, some 150 kilometres from here. MWM central information secretary Syed Mehdi Abidi told PTI that Punjabi Taliban and SSP were behind the killings. He said that the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif-led Punjab government had turned a blind eye to the rise in sectarian killings. “The Government is still denying the presence of Punjabi Taliban in Punjab province and also has given a freehand to SSP to target Shia Muslims with impunity,” he said. Muzahir Shigri, MWM leader and Punjab spokesman, said that after the Bhakkar incident, the SSP and Punjabi Taliban have asked their activists to target Shia Muslims in Punjab, a province of 90 million. He urged the Punjab and federal governments to take serious note of the killings. Recently, during the clashes between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Bhakkar district, some 400 kilometres from here, 15 people belonging to both sects were killed.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 05:37:30 +0000