Karachi: Police register Parveen Rehman murder case

KARACHI: A case into the murder of Parveen Rehman, the late director of Orangi Pilot Project, was registered in Pirabad Police Station in the precincts of which she was shot dead on Wednesday, while a suspension was slapped on the stationhouse officer (SHO), Geo News reported.

On Wednesday night, unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead the prominent woman development worker, police said, fuelling fears of instability as the country heads towards general elections in May.

The Pirabad police lodged the First Inspection Report (FIR) on the complaint of her driver, Wali Dad, against unknown assailants.

Parveen Rehman, 56, was known for her work in impoverished neighborhoods and her independent organization, the Orangi Pilot Project, won a UN-Habitat award in 2001.

"She was on her way back home when armed motorcyclists intercepted her car and shot her dead," Javed Odho, a senior police said.

Mohammad Saleem, a doctor at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Rehman's body was taken, said she was hit with at least four bullets.

The city of 18 million, which is Pakistan's business hub, last year saw around 2,000 people killed in violence linked to ethnic and political tensions, its deadliest toll in two decades.