Baqaians Forum

Don't ever become a witness against police or Army or you would end up dead and no one would care. This message has been clearly passed on by the quetta police and military and para military foeces in pakistan.

A police surgeon who had conducted autopsies on victims of the gruesome Kharotabad shooting incident was shot dead in Quetta on Thursday.

Dr Baqar Shah, who was a key witness in the incident, was earlier attacked outside a restaurant as a group of men he later identified as policemen tried to whisk him away. The incident had taken place after he appeared before a judicial panel investigating the Kharotabad killings and testified that the five foreigners had died of bullet wounds, not a bomb blast, diluting police claims that those dead in the encounter were would-be suicide bombers. During its hearings on the Kharotabad case, the Balochistan High Court ordered that Shah be provided protection after he disclosed to the court that he was receiving death threats.

On Thursday, however, as Dr Shah made his way home from Bolan Medical Complex (BMC) Teaching Hospital, two masked gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at his car and killed him on the spot. The assailants, as yet unidentified, managed to flee the crime scene. The incident occurred at Sabzal Road, one of the city’s busiest roads.

In what appears to be a targeted shooting, the doctor’s companion who sat in the driving seat escaped unhurt in the attack, police said. Dr Shah was immediately taken to BMC where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

According to doctors, Dr Shah was shot from very close range and sustained five bullet wounds. He was shot thrice in the head while one bullet passed through his skull. Shocked doctors and paramedical staff gathered outside the emergency ward where Dr Shah’s body was brought for a post-mortem.

Ehsan Mehboob, Quetta police chief, told reporters that police have begun collecting evidence. “Police are investigating the incident from all aspects and also looking into the threats that the victim said he was receiving,” Mehboob said, declaring the act a clear case of terrorism.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani also issued a condemnation of the incident and ordered a probe into the murder.

Senator Lashkari Raisani also condemned the killing, calling it the clear failure of local administration and law enforcement agencies. “Government must properly investigate these killing and bring the culprits to book,” he told reporters. “The doctor was forced to change his post-mortem report, which he refused to do.”

Dr Shah is survived by his widow and two sons, eight and 14 years old. His body has been taken to his ancestral town of Jacobabad for final rites and burial.