KARACHI, 19 March 2006 — Unknown assailants gunned down a former provincial minister and leader of the Pakistan Mulsim League (PML-Q), Badar Iqbal, along with his bodyguard, at busy M.A. Jinnah Road here yesterday.
Two others were injured in the shooting, said Tariq Aslam, an area police chief. He said one passer-by was also injured when a stray bullet hit him, but gave no further details.
Iqbal was a provincial minister in 1990s. In the past, he was a member of the country’s ethnic-based Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM) party. However, in recent years he changed political loyalty and joined the ruling party. MQM, a party mainly representing Urdu-speaking migrants from India, is also a partner in the coalition government that rules Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital.
Meanwhile, a homemade bomb exploded near a government engineer’s home in southwestern Pakistan yesterday, triggering panic and shattering windows but leaving no one hurt, police said. No group or individual claimed responsibility for the attack near the home of engineer Victor James in Quetta, said Police Inspector Jamil Ahmad.
