Unidentified assailants shot dead a young religious scholar on the busy Kasi Road in Quetta on Saturday.
According to details, Qari Abdul Basit, son of noted religious scholar Maulvi Abdul Samad, was on his way to a mosque from his residence when armed men on a motorbike opened fired on him, killing him instantly.
The gunmen fled after committing the crime. He was shifted to Provincial Sandeman Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival. A number of people reached the hospital for mourning. After legal formalities, the body was handed over to the heirs for burial.
Later, angry protestors burnt tyres on Kasi Road to protest the killing, blocking the road for vehicular traffic for hours. “It could be an incident of targeted killing and police are investigating,” a local police official said.
JUI-F Quetta President Hafiz Hamdullah condemned the incident and said over 10 religious scholars belonging to the Sunni sect had been killed in the last few months in Quetta alone.
“It seems a powerful group is behind the targeted killings and incidents of kidnapping for ransom in Quetta which is why not a single culprit was brought to book,” he told a private TV channel.
