Pakistani Professor at University of Karachi Is Killed in Shooting
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Version 0 of 1. KARACHI, Pakistan — A Pakistani university professor was shot to death in the volatile southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday in what officials suspected was a targeted killing. Waheed ur Rehman, 42, an assistant professor of mass communication at the state-run University of Karachi, was killed Wednesday morning when four attackers, on two motorbikes, intercepted his car in a busy neighborhood and sprayed it with bullets. It was the second attack this month on an academic in Karachi, which is known for its ethnic and sectarian tensions. The police said they were investigating the case and that it was premature to comment on a motive. Noman Siddique, a senior police official, said the killing was not linked to continuing sectarian attacks targeting Shiites, as Dr. Rehman was a member of the Sunni sect of Islam. Tausif Ahmed Khan, the former head of the mass communication department at Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology in Karachi, said that Dr. Rehman had no disputes with anyone. However, he said, Dr. Rehman had completed his doctorate under a liberal Muslim scholar who was shot to death in September after being accused of blasphemy. That scholar, Muhammad Shakil Auj, the dean of Islamic studies at the University of Karachi, had been accused of blasphemy for a speech he gave during a visit to the United States. Blasphemy is punishable by death under Pakistani law, and accusations of blasphemy have inspired a rising tide of vigilante killings in recent years. Doctors at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Karachi said Dr. Rehman had been shot five times. Dr. Rehman was also known by his pen name, Yasir Rizvi, under which he worked as a journalist with a Karachi-based newspaper. A large crowd of students blocked the main road to the university on Wednesday in a demonstration against Dr. Rehman’s killing. The university announced it would suspend academic activities at the campus for two days. Muhammad Qaiser, the vice chancellor of the University of Karachi, said that the government had failed to protect the city’s teachers. “The killing of teachers has created panic among the community and compelling them to stay at home,” he said. This month an American citizen who works as a vice principal at a medical college was shot and seriously wounded in an attack. |