INTERNATIONAL

Former chief of Al Badr shot dead by unknown gunmen in Pakistan

By News Desk

February 27, 2023

Syed Khalid Raza, who formerly headed Al Badr militant outfit has been shot dead by some unidentified persons in Karachi, Pakistan.

As per local media reports, Syed Khalid Raza has been shot from point-blank range in his head at the doorstep of his residence located at Block 7, Gulistan-e-Johar.

Police said that the murder was related to robbery and not a targeted killing, ARY News reported. “The attackers did not take belongings after killing Raza,” as per the news report.

The Police said that Raza is an office-bearer of a private schools’ association. Moreover, he was the vice chairman of the Federation of Private Schools.

Following the incident, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori contacted the Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi and sought a report on Raza’s killing. He ordered the AIG Karachi to investigate the incident in all aspects

Raza, as per reports, was commander of the Al Badr outfit active in the early 1990s and then revived in the year 2017 when Zeenat ul Islam, a militant from Shopian was declared its commander.

However, for the past many decades, Raza was working as the Director of a school in Karachi and had become Vice Chairman of the Federation of Private Schools of Karachi.

Several schools in Karachi are closed as a mark of protest on Monday to condemn the killing of Syed Khalid Raza.

Pertinently,  last week on February 21, top Commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam, based in Pakistan, was shot dead by unidentified persons in Rawalpindi.

On February 14, another ISI-enrolled Kashmiri militant and former head of Islamic State Hind Province (ISHP) Ejaz Ahmad Ahangar was killed in Afghanistan.