ISLAMABAD: Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a retired major general of Pakistan Army and his driver in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday.
Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alvi from the Special Services Group (SSG) had retired more than two years ago. He was heading for his Islamabad office at 9:30am on Wednesday when the unidentified gunmen stopped his car on Islamabad Highway near the PWD Colony in Koral police precincts, a police official told Daily Times.
They shot at him and his driver Tanveer and fled, he added. Police cordoned off the area and began a search while the bodies were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Hospital sources said eight bullets hit Gen Alvi , three in the head, two in the neck and three in the chest. The driver had six bullet injuries including one in his head. Police told Online news agency one or more 8MM pistols had been used in the attack.
A first information report had not been registered by Wednesday evening.
Terrorist act: Police sources said the killing was being seen as a terrorist act by "militants'. Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives have targeted top army leaders and security officials in the past.
One senior official said personal rivalry could not be ruled out. He said the murder could not be linked with the Lal Masjid operation because the general had retired long before the incident.
Violence began to escalate last July when army commandos stormed the Lal Masjid during the regime of General (r) Pervez Musharraf, himself an ex-SSG head. A wave of suicide bombings has since killed hundreds of people and Taliban have targeted security forces.
Violence subsided when the new government that came to power after the election in February opened talks with Taliban, but it picked up again after top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud suspended the talks in June.
President, PM condemn: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the killing in separate messages. Gilani deplored the tragic killing and expressed deep sorrow over the demise of the retired general.
President Zardari said he "prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed soul in peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity".
Security has deteriorated alarmingly in the country over recent months with the military attacking Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the northwest while they have responded with attacks on security forces. Two suicide bombers had killed at least 59 people in an attack on the country's main defence industry complex in August.
Daily Times (Lahore)
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