Who is behind murder of Khalid Shahanshah?

Asif’s chief security officer gunned down in Karachi



By Tahir Siddiqui


KARACHI, July 22: Khalid Shahanshah, the chief security officer of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, was assassinated on Tuesday afternoon outside his Clifton residence, police and witnesses said.

They said that gunmen on a white car sprayed him with a volley of bullets while he was stepping off his double-cabin vehicle in front of his house at Khyaban-i-Bukhari.

Darakhshan police said the 45-year-old PPP leader, who was stated to have been instrumental in the recent operation against gangsters in Lyari, reached his house along with a friend at about 2.45pm.

Mr Shahanshah parked his vehicle outside his bungalow as the gate of his porch was being repaired, while his friend, Manzar Abbas, went inside.

The victim’s friend, a businessman, told police that he went inside the house and Shahanshah was parking the vehicle. He said he stayed back when he heard the sound of gunfire.

A private security guard at the PPP leader’s house rushed out, only to find Mr Shahanshah lying in a pool of blood near the main entrance. He told Dawn that Mr Shahanshah managed to call the police from his mobile phone, although he was critically wounded.

The fatally wounded victim, father of two, was immediately taken to a nearby campus of the Ziauddin Medical University Hospital, but he died.

Hospital sources said the slain PPP leader had received at least five bullets, three of them in his upper torso, from a very close range.

Party leaders, including Rashid Rabbani and Waqar Mehdi, immediately reached the hospital.

Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who also rushed to the hospital, described the incident as another attempt to destabilise the government.

Police said that 18 empties of sub-machine gun and a dozen of .222 rifles were recovered from the scene.

SHO Inspector Khalid Mehboob said there was no eyewitness to the killing. “The private security guard could not see the faces of the occupants of the car that sped away after the swift operation,” he added.

The Darakhshan police chief said it was clearly a case of target killing. “But nothing could be said about the motive behind the incident at the moment,” he added.

The car used by the assailants was found abandoned in the evening in Defence Society.

Police sources said the attackers had fired from inside the car. They said that at least five shots had been fired from behind the windscreen of the car. Police also found empties in the car.

The sources said the car bore a fake provincial government registration number (GS-3909).

A case was registered against unknown assailants on the complaint of the victim’s younger brother, Haider Ali.

Shahanshah was once said to have links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Other two associates of Dawood were Shoaib Khan and Ibrahim alias Bholu. The former died in mysterious circumstances in Karachi’s Central Jail and the latter was kidnapped and killed.

Shahanshah was also a close associate of the slain chief of PPP’s student wing, Najeeb Ahmed.

Shahanshah contested the 2002 election for a National Assembly seat from the Azizabad constituency on a PPP ticket. He went abroad for some time and returned with Benazir Bhutto on Oct 18 last year. He was also with Ms Bhutto when she was assassinated on Dec 27.

He was interviewed by the Scotland Yard team which visited Pakistan to investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
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Khalid Shahinshah, key suspect in BB’s murder assassinated in Karachi
Posted by Teeth Maestro
July 23, 2008

Khalid Shahinshah signaling someone before BB assassinationA key witness of a Bhutto assassination has been shot dead in Karachi yesterday on Khy-e-Bhukahri.

DAWN: Khalid Shahanshah, the chief security officer of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, was assassinated on Tuesday afternoon outside his Clifton residence, police and witnesses said. They said that gunmen on a white car sprayed him with a volley of bullets while he was stepping off his double-cabin vehicle in front of his house at Khyaban-i-Bukhari.

If many may recall a video surfaced after Benazir Bhutto assassination in Islamabad which showed Khalid Shahinshah suspiciously signaling to some one in the crowd.

Khalid Shahinshah, who was hired by Bhutto on the recommendation of her security advisor Rahman Malik, has been on the run ever since footage emerged of the strange gestures he had made while standing on the dais next to Bhutto while she addressed an election rally.

Shahinshah was standing on Bhutto’s left during her speech and ran a finger across his throat which implied slitting the throat. Security officials have expressed concern at his “suspicious gestures” which could not be ignored.

It seems as this is a Deja Vu of Murtaza Bhutto’s assassination when two on the key witnesses, SHO Haq Nawaz mysteriously died of self-inflicted wounds and Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi killed a few months later. Whilst we can recall that One must also remember that all the key players involved in Murtaza Bhutto’s assassination have been highly compensated starting off with, Shoaib Suddle who was deputy inspector-general (DIG) of Karachi at the time of the killing; is now IG Sindh

Wajid Durrani, alleged to be the coordinator of the Murtaza Bhutto’s assassination, was the senior superintendent of police (SSP) District South, Karachi, at the time of the killing. Mr Durrani, was promoted to additional deputy inspector-general (ADIG). Rai Tahir, who stopped the car and allegedly gave the signal to fire, was the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) in Clifton in 1996. He was promoted to district police officer (DPO) and moved to the Punjab

Shahid Hayat was another ASP from the Saddar district. He was promoted to ADIG, then DPO Thatta, and is now prowling Jinnah airport as the Deputy Director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and very recently Dogar court compensated him for his lost wages during the few months of inactivity while Agha Jamil the station house officer (SHO) of the Napier police station in Karachi and was later promoted to work under his old comrade at the traffic department as a deputy superintendent (DSP).

With all this as a historical perspective in the background one does try to find a common denominator and in both cases it seems to have Asif Ali Zardari intrinsically involved in both Bhutto assassinations and quite mysteriously both key murders ended up inconclusive and all witnesses escaped investigation Even the 27th Dec assassination of Benazir Bhutto is remains a mystery with only Zardari being the key beneficiary to her assassination.


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Comments
Comment by Barrister Ali K.Chishti on July 23, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

Awab,

I- I knew Khalid from London and if you knew him – he was a man of integrity and nothing more.
II- His acts on the stage were his normal as he was often called, a joker and Mr. Bean.
III- It’s not necessary the beneficiary of one incident which are chief/prime suspects but people who benefited indirectly – that could be N.S that could be a lot of other people. But lets not go into ‘ifs’ & ‘buts’

Kindly, honor the dead!!! Please…
Comment by Zafar Iqbal on July 23, 2008 @ 6:00 pm

I agree with Awab, we had seen a lot of mysterious things happening so far. And all these incidents mentioned by him are not just co-incidents. They are facts, and if I see at this as a murder investigator then I will point a finger first of all at the beneficiaries of that murder. So we should not ignore these things.
Comment by Imran on July 23, 2008 @ 6:10 pm

That does NOT look like a face of killer or conspirator, innocent always die in Pakistan, while guilty live like kings.
Comment by Imtiaz on July 23, 2008 @ 6:15 pm

The killing of any human being is really a very brutal act. We all condemn the killing of any Muslim, any Pakistani, and any Human Being.

May Allah give him place in the heavens.

Well as for as link to the Benazir killing is concerned there may be some chances as wrote by Awab but there could be chances the people who are actually involved in Benazir killing have also killed him to divert the investigations in Benazir case.

God Know Better
Comment by Aflatoon on July 23, 2008 @ 6:27 pm

Naaa, his gestures don’t mean any thing.

Looks like he went down to allow a cameraman to take a good snap of BB. He doesn’t have any signs of nervousness on his face.

PPP blamed it on MQM (implicitly).

Usually in parties like PPP and MQM, insiders are killed because :

1) Opposition to the leadership or
2) One group wanting to get closer to the leadership may kill another group who is already closer to the leadership.

Moral of the story: Its bloody Politics in Pakistan, only the Harami-est win.
Comment by Aflatoon on July 24, 2008 @ 12:20 am

Insider JOB

Read this at DAWN….

KARACHI, July 22:…..

Darakhshan police said the 45-year-old PPP leader, who was stated to have been instrumental in the recent operation against gangsters in Lyari, reached his house along with a friend at about 2.45pm.

Mr Shahanshah parked his vehicle outside his bungalow as the gate of his porch was being repaired, while his friend, Manzar Abbas, went inside.

Wow what kind of friendship was that? the host was outside parking his car and the guest was already in the house Looks like the guest knew whats going to happen to the host…..
Comment by Aflatoon on July 24, 2008 @ 12:21 am

http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/23/top1.htm
Comment by dr razahaider on July 24, 2008 @ 2:19 am

@barrister chisti

This is very astonishing that a joker, well known, as per chisti version, Mr. Bean, was appointed a chief security officer.

It seems very easy to become barrister if you have few bucks’ .Just get admission in some school in Pakistan, stay there for few months, go to England for 9 month or so get the diploma from there and become a barrister after few dinners.

But I don’t think such qualification bought through in lieu of bucks can create essence as an advocate and quality as trait to perceive and interpret things which can easily be assessed after having your version of thoughts.

In books of investigative principle such acts after dreadful episodes can never escape definition and interpretation.

If every thing would have been ok such actions would have never gain attention in the eyes of scrutiny.

However if we critically evaluate the actions of the subject protocol officer and murder of BB, I would have no second thought but to tag the action and event a chain of command, explaining the mode and format of designed fatality.

Eyes witness what is been shown and mind logically interpret what is seen.

Ethically, deviation of thoughts only results when there are two episodes of different theme thereby, balancing each other, thus directing individual to indulge discussion with open horizon, dimensions and sphere hence, keeping all ifs and buts in legitimate vocabulary.

Since the action and related turmoil have linear and symbiotic resemblance in meaning and explanation and resulting outcome, in no way exemption can be permitted.

Similarly murder is itself explaining the connectivity thou there may be more factors to divert the thoughts in displacement.

A person known to be a comedian is never a victim of his normal activity.

@ All, why is it that after a sad episode of culmination as death we humanly express our opinion to close the chapter, as something unusual being happened therefore, no further discussion gains part of our lives that has caused such a turmoil to the country, such as that occur in the shape of the death of benazir Bhutto.

In my opinion it is this attitude that has never highlighted and solved the murder, mysteries and myth from liaqat Ali khan to Benazir Bhutto.
It is this attitude that people give away their will to participate in discussion thereby allowing criminals to enjoy the perks as there is no one to hinder the route that t has been created.

We got to perceive thing professionally, like lawyers and doctors who after loosing a patient or client starts preparing the new patient or case so to relief as been asked to do.
Regards
Comment by Teeth Maestro on July 24, 2008 @ 10:31 am

@Ali - I have no intention of disrespecting the departed, we mourn any such loss of life. But the overall punch of the message may well be directed at the lack of investigation in regards to the slaying of Benazir Bhutto. Ironically he was there making suspicious gestures (intentionally or not) but those were made barely moments before she was killed - I like many have reason to suspect, and question the so called investigation. Make these gestures anywhere in the world so close to a murder scene and you will most likely be deemed a prime suspect until proven innocent

Our system is inherently corrupt and unless we catch and point out the blatant errors these criminals will (and always have) walked way scott free - in my books this is the second deliberate assassination of a Bhutto leader and that too suspiciously under the watch of Zardari.

May his soul rest in peace - but the questions raised must stand in their own right they must
Comment by Shahzad on July 24, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

dr Raza Haider,

Why are you firing personal attacks on Barrister Chishti? Just because he has different views than you? I personally don’t know him, but I find your remakrs against him very offensive.

Shame on you. You don’t deserve the credentials of a DR. You can show-off as much as you want, but honestly Dr like you are the source of illness in the societies.

You can earn the credentials you want, but its not easy to wash-away the sick-upbringing.
Comment by dr razahaider on July 25, 2008 @ 12:19 am

Domain is a term used arbitrarily to express legitimate, restricted premises so to explain the visitor of its limited boundaries.

Intellect have similar sibling in the format of domain where intellect can enter on behalf of their expertise ,skill, and define knowledge in the form and format of their qualification, interpretation, evaluation, inference, predictions and notions.

Prefix and suffix awards and medal explain the legitimacy of concealed qualities that grants permissible visa to enter the domain of such intellects as similar school of thinking and thoughts.

However distraction, distortion and displacement from ethical, moral and professional attitude due to factors that could buy any thing, less ability and knowledge, deteriorated these preliminary and honorary awards.

Nevertheless, in spite of such deranged and distorted figure, discrimination is still the subject of study on ground of responses, reactions, and interpretations and assessment.

Subject lawyer proved his abilities in the contest of similar belongings through his way to percept and interpret.

Rejection, dejection, disown, criticism, and maltreatment although a universally accepted offensive terminologies but these factors of humiliation create reactionary offensive retaliation thus boosting and uplifting the profile of a person who is exposed or discriminated in this regard. Under such stressful preoccupied enmity, rift or rivalry desire to attack and compete again with the discriminator is created hence reverting again on the platform with more thrust and power.

Since this platform is an intellectual platform, he is expected to visit the forum again with new concept of interpretation, perception and examination thereby defending the title and award that has been granted or achieved.

In my opinion under the requisite justification ,I see no offence to be apologetic or be ashamed of my behavior as in fact I have tried to uplift his profile ,so that in future he may realize the fact that advocacy demands logical justification as circumstantial evidences on ground of available facts and figures.

Whereas to your inquisition to my credentials ,please allow me to minimize discussion by saying that the above discussion is also a unique art of disembarking individual who can not properly interpret because of their low intelligence quotient ,and I would definitely wont like your kind sole to be engaged within the domain.

My regards, to you and chisti, as well.

Whereas, it is for your info that I have few more credentials of being a surgeon and military officer, as well.
Comment by cleangoogle on July 25, 2008 @ 8:04 pm

stone all home no this usa head green
Comment by ZF on July 25, 2008 @ 8:04 pm

May be his gesture simply means poking fun at BB voice.. Seems like he is tyring to say “BB ka gala betha hua hai”..
Comment by Obi Wan Kenobi on July 26, 2008 @ 8:54 am

Dr. Sahib , may I ask you one question ? How much time do you spend in blogging? I guess you are a retired Army officer and not much to do. One piece of advice, no one really cares for so long comments.
Comment by Teeth Maestro on July 26, 2008 @ 10:06 am

@OBI - you know me better then that at least from our three years of interaction
Comment by Obi Wan Kenobi on July 26, 2008 @ 10:50 pm

Teetho, the comment was not directed to you :-), that was for Dr. Raza Haider who is continuously spamming pak blogosphere with his intellect… By the way you are not a dr., you are a dentist :-) haha. Just kidding. Any how I am still wondering if you could get us update on KU professor who was beaten up by rangers. I guess Prof. brother contacted you so you may have his email address. Any updates would be really appreciated or at least commit to us that you don’t have any updates and you really don’t care for an update as long as it stirred up the people at that time.
Comment by Asim on July 26, 2008 @ 11:29 pm

Dr Raza,

take your credentials to impress the police in Pakistan, they may give you a salute for your credentials.

But your writings and your words to belittle others earn you no respect. So if you think your credentials give you the right to launch personal attach on other because they differ from your view then you might as well take those credentials up your A$$.
Comment by dr razahaider on July 27, 2008 @ 12:15 am

I think it’s not me but my writing that has probably started poking.

Any ways dear all, dear we got to dig out what we want.

Why is it that we are always short of time?

It is because of this attitude that has distracted our thoughts and had infact squeezed our memory to short tempered dumps with usage within the premises of ,events as news, victims to orientate and reason, so to spend few days of hot discussion.

Infact nothing gain but habitual looser.

So why are the Muslims

so powerless!!!