KARACHI, 18 June 2004 — A Pakistan People’s Party leader and ex-bodyguard of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was slain in a drive-by shooting in Karachi yesterday, triggering a riot by his supporters, police said.
Two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire at the car of Munawwar Suharwardi on a busy road near Guru Mandir in Jamshed Quarters area, Deputy Inspector General of Police Tariq Jamil said.
He said an investigation had begun but that police did not know who was behind the attack. The killing sparked violence near the residence of Suharwardi, where dozens of supporters threw stones at a gas station and a nearby bank. The protesters set fire to two cars and a motorcycle and damaged several shops. They also tried to set fire to the bank, but police stopped them. Angry youths set tires ablaze to block traffic.
Suharwardi was the bodyguard and spokesman for Benazir’s opposition Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, in Sindh province.
He was taken to a hospital after the attack, where he died, Jamil said.
Suharwardi, 44, was hit by three bullets but did not die instantly and managed to flag down an auto rickshaw to take him to the Aga Khan hospital. But he died on arrival from profuse bleeding. “He got three bullets in his body which later proved fatal,” PPP’s Karachi spokesman Ejaz Durrani said.
Suharwardi had a long association with PPP and had been a high profile activist of the party since his student life. Though he had never entered Parliament, he enjoyed a close association with Benazir.
Suharwardi, who served as adviser to the provincial government from 1993 to 1996, was alone in the car when the attack occurred. It was the second time in the past several months that leaders of Benazir’s party have been targeted. On March 6, two gunmen riding on a motorcycle in Karachi ambushed the car of Abdullah Murad, killing the PPP lawmaker.
Murad’s assassination sparked violence at the time. His killers have yet to be arrested.
Nisar Khuhro, the chief of the PPP in Sindh province condemned the killing of his party leader and the earlier attack on Murad, saying the two were “victims of target killings.”
However, Khuhro refused to say who was responsible for both the attacks.
Benazir, who was Pakistan’s prime minister twice, has been living in self-imposed exile since 1999, when she fled to avoid arrest on corruption charges.
The body of the slain leader was shifted to his home where thousands gathered, including political leaders of other parties. Heavy police have been deployed in the area but they have not resisted the enraged protesters. PPP’s central chief, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, condemned the murder of his party colleague and accused the government of not providing protection to the masses. “It is a target killing. It has become evident that there is no government and law in the country,” Fahim said.
