Naiyyar Mehdi Zaidi was among six people killed after two gunmen tried to attack a traditional Shia gathering in Karachi

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A British man and two of his brothers have been buried in Karachi two days after they were shot dead by sectarian militants at a family religious gathering.



The funeral of Naiyyar Mehdi Zaidi and his brothers Nasir Abbas Zaidi, a US citizen, and Baqir Abbas Zaidi, a Pakistani national, took place amid tight security.

Dozens of police vehicles cordoned off streets and stood guard over the funeral at a Shia mosque and the burial of the brothers at a graveyard on the outskirts of the city.

The men were among six people killed after two gunmen attempted to enter a house in the suburb of Nazimabad where up to 90 women were holding a majlis, a traditional gathering in Shia Islam.

The attackers arrived on a motorbike and were unable to enter the building after someone inside the compound, alerted by gunfire, locked the outside gate.

Among the male family members waiting outside were Naiyyar and his five brothers, two of whom survived the attack and are now in hospital.

The others killed were Mohammad Zaki Khan, a distant relative, Mohammad Nadeem, a driver, and a woman who has not been identified.

Naiyyar, 60, a retired banker, lived in London, and Nasir Abbas was resident in Seattle, meaning the brothers rarely gathered together in one place. They were not buried on the day their deaths, as Islamic custom would usually dictate, to allow family members to fly in from around the world.

Naiyyar’s daughter-in-law, Qaisar Khan, said he was a regular visitor to Karachi. His most recent trip was to prepare for the wedding next summer of one of his sons. “He was a very cautious person but you never think a thing like this will happen to you,” she said. “The fact that the brothers tend not to get together very often only adds to the pain.”

Ali bin Sufyan, a spokesman for the Sunni sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi (LeJ-A), claimed responsibly for the attack, saying “there is no room for the enemies of the companions of the prophet Muhammad in Pakistan”, a reference to the country’s Shia minority.

It was the fourth attack on a majlis in Karachi in October, and the third one involving a women-only event.

The house was close to both a local police station and a checkpoint manned by the Rangers, a paramilitary force given sweeping powers three years ago to impose law and order on Karachi, a city infamous for its criminal gangs and militant groups.

Prominent Karachi Shias, particularly medical doctors, are frequent victims of “target killings” by Sunni supremacist groups, often carried out by gunmen on motorbikes.

The police said they had not been aware a majlis was taking place at the house. “If they had informed us, we would have provided security to them,” said Qamar Zaib Satti, a spokesman for the city police.

Satti said a special team had been formed to find the culprits, and a reward of 2m rupees (£15,000) had been offered for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.

The group that claimed responsibility for the attack is the international faction of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a long-established anti-Shia organisation with its roots in Punjab province.

LeJ-A said it played a key organisational role in the massacre of more than 60 police recruits in Quetta last week, which was officially claimed by Islamic State.