High Court advocate shot dead in Karachi

Karachi, Aug 29: An advocate of Sindh High Court working on several cases in the anti-terrorism courts has been shot dead by bike-borne gunmen in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area here, police said.

Syed Ameer Hyder Shah, a Shia muslim, was returning to his home last night in a car when three suspects on a motorcycle opened fire at him. "They opened indiscriminate firing on Hyder Shah near Hassan Square and fled from the scene," a senior police official said.

Shah sustained critical bullet wounds and was taken to a nearby private hospital where doctors pronounced him dead, Gulshan SP Abid Qaimkhani said.

"We are not ruling out the motive of sectarian target killing but Hyder Shah was also pleading several terrorist related cases in the AT courts," he said. "His killing could be linked to his professional work as will we are looking at every angle," he added.

Karachi police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar had said last week that for a city of over 20 million people there were only 30,000 policemen who were already battling organised criminal gangs, armed wings of political parties and militants of banned outfits.

Earlier this month a senior MQM leader Rasheed Godal who was also the party's parliamentary leader in the national assembly was shot at least six times by still unidentified gunmen in the Bahadurabad area but survived and is still in hospital under heavy security.

PTI