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| India-Pakistan |
| Gunmen kill Shia doctor linked to PPP in Peshawar: police |
| 2013-01-10 |
| [Dawn] Gunmen on Wednesday rubbed out a Shia Moslem doctor associated with the main ruling Pakistain People's Party (PPP) in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , police said. Riaz Hussain was president of the PPP branch in Kurram, one of seven semi-autonomous districts that make up the tribal belt on the Afghan border where the Taliban and al Qaeda have strongholds. He was killed as he left his clinic in the Dabgari area of Peshawar and police suggested it was a targeted, sectarian killing -- rare in the city but increasingly frequent in other parts of the country. "The gunnies fired at Hussain's car when he left his clinic. Apparently, he is victim of sectarian assassinations," local police official Kamal Hussein told AFP, referring to a wave of violence picking out Shias in Pakistain. Another police official confirmed the attack. "We have initiated an investigation into the murder of Doctor Riaz Hussein. It looks like a sectarian killing," senior police official Imran Shah told AFP. Shias account for around 20 per cent of Pakistain's 180-million population and rights activists say they are increasingly victims of beturbanned goon Sunni factions. Analysts have also warned that a recent spike in violence in Peshawar raises fears of a renewed turban campaign that could threaten national elections, expected to take place around May. |
| Posted by:Fred |