Karachi: A member of the Ahmadiyya community — a practicing homeopathic doctor — was shot dead in a targeted attack on his clinic in the city’s Malir district late on Monday night.

Dr Chaudhary Abdul Khaliq, aged between 40 to 50, was fatally targeted by unknown assailants at his clinic in Ali Town, Sikandar Goth within the Sachal police limits.

District Malir SSP Rao Anwaar said Dr Khaliq, a resident of Metroville-II, was attending to patients when two attackers entered his clinic, asked specifically for Dr Khaliq and shot him once in the head at close range. No one else was hurt in the attack which was carried out with a pistol, according to the officer.

The SSP added that none of the witnesses managed to get a glimpse of the attackers’ faces as the area was without electricity at the time of the shooting.

Since the victim had been shot in the head, his chances of survival were extremely slim and he had passed away by the time he was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

As per SSP Anwaar, initial investigations revealed that Dr Khaliq was not facing any specific threats and the murder was mostly likely a sectarian hit. A case was reported and investigations were underway.

In messages posted on Twitter after the condemnable attack, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community, Saleem ud Din, pointed out that this was the second such attack on the community in Karachi in less than a month.

On May 25, Dawood Ahmad, 55, was fatally injured when unknown assailants shot at him outside his house near Metroville, Block-2 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

The statement highlighted that yesterday’s attack was also in the same district and that Dr Khaliq’s clinic and home were in the same locality as Dawood Ahmad’s.

“…This is 2nd incident in same area of same nature. All in a month’s time. Many Ahmadis have been targeted for their faith in this specific locality and authorities are well aware [sic] about it. Yet there is no action,” said Saleem ud Din in his messages on Twitter.

Dr Khaliq, he further shared, has left behind a widow, a daughter and two sons.

A report compiled and published by the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyaa (JA) in April this year, shed light on the significant increase in hate propaganda against the community over the past one year.

As per the data released, to date, 323 Ahmadis had so far survived murder attempts, 27 of their worship places had been demolished, 32 sealed, 16 illegally appropriated, and 39 graves of Ahmadis have been desecrated and bodies of 65 have been refused burial in mixed cemeteries.