Sector I-8 unsafe for all

Sector I-8 unsafe for all

ISLAMABAD, March 2: Speculation was rife on Wednesday that the assassination of Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti in Sector I-8 was the result of security lapse.

But residents of the posh sector said I-8 had been insecure even otherwise.

The Christian leader`s assassination was the third and most tragic of the high-profile bloody incidents witnessed in 15 months in the sector that has become notorious for street crime and worse.

A Chinese national and a local resident were murdered in January while a brigadier of the Pakistan Army had narrowly survived a terrorist attack in November 2009.

Not a single day passes without some house being robbed and cellphone and purse-snatching cases are routine. Absence of a secured boundary has made the sector a happy hunting ground for criminals and trespassers, according to the residents.

People there live in fear and families are scared to venture out after sunset. Private guards are seen deployed everywhere and those living on the periphery have set up manned-barricades at key streets for extra security.

But the intense gunfire that killed Minister Shahbaz Bhatti on Wednesday shattered their sense of security. “I was working in my office when the sudden rattle of gunfire around 11am made me sit up,” Saleem Ishtiaq, an employee of a multinational company based in I-8/4 commercial centre, told Dawn.

“First I thought someone was firing in jubilation as there is a marriage hall also in commercial centre. But the reality dawned soon when the sad news appeared on television channels,” he said.

As the minister`s car came out of Street 71 of I/8-4, where he visited his mother, four gunmen intercepted it and sprayed it with gunfire, killing him on the spot.

Tahir Mughal, a neighbour and eyewitness, said: “All I heard was continuous gunshots. I ran out and saw the minister lying in a pool of blood. His driver rushed him to the nearby Shifa International Hospital.”

Sector I-8 has two main exit and entry points – one on Teepu Sultan Road and the other facing Ninth Avenue. “Both have permanent police checkposts but they proved no check on crime,” lamented Mr Mughal.

Asked for his comments, a retired military officer working in a private security firm said: “Sector I-8 is open to trespassers from all sides and so vulnerable. Police should increase

patrolling in the sector and deploy plainclothesmen to keep an eye on anti-social elements across the city,” he suggested.