Less than ten days after the deadly anti-Shiite terrorist attack in Peshawar, Syed Salman Haider Rizvi was killed in Karachi.
by Massimo Introvigne
After on March 4 more than 60 Shiites were killed in a terrorist attack against a mosque in Peshawar, a prominent Shi’a leader has been assassinated in Karachi.
In February, Bitter Winter published a series about the discrimination and terrorist attacks against the Shiite community in Pakistan. The new incidents confirm that the protection of the persecuted minority and its leaders by Pakistani authorities and police is not effective.
Syed Salman Haider Rizvi, general secretary of the Shiite organization Pasban-e-Aza and former president of the Khair-ul-Amal mosque, was shot by two men on a motorcycle armed with 9mm pistols on March 13 outside his home in the Ancholi area of Karachi, within the jurisdiction of the Samanabad police station.
As soon as he stopped his car near home, the assassins fired at him. He was promptly taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, but arrived there dead.
The assassinated leader was the son of Syed Salman Haider, the founder of Pasban-e-Aza. His funeral was attended by thousands, and was an opportunity for protesting the persecution and violence against Shi’a leaders and devotees.
Shops were closed as tensions mounted in the area. The national Shiite organization Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen condemned the shooting, and stated it evidenced a national conspiracy to kill Shiite leaders that law enforcement officers are obviously unable to stop.
