Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claim responsibility for the killing of popular Sufi singer.
One of Pakistan’s best known Sufi musicians was shot dead by unknown assailants riding a motorcycle in Karachi on Wednesday, triggering an outpouring of grief over what police described as an “act of terror.”
Amjad Sabri, aged around 45, was traveling by car from his home in the city’s eastern Korangi area to a television studio, when a motorcycle pulled up alongside the vehicle and the attackers opened fire, said Farooq Sanjarani, a police officer. Sabri was hit by five bullets and was declared dead at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital while a companion, identified as relative Saleem Sabri, was in critical condition, a hospital source added.
“It was a targeted killing and an act of terrorism,” Muqaddas Haider, a senior police officer said, without naming possible suspects.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the type of music Sabri performed was ‘blasphemous.’ The Taliban and other Islamist groups have carried out major attacks on Sufi mosques and shrines in recent years, including the 2010 bombing of the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore that killed more than 40 people.
Grisly mobile phone footage of the scene of the crime shot by an onlooker showed the singer’s head slumped on his right shoulder and a pool of blood on the ground by the driver’s side where he sat.
Sabri was a ‘Qawwal,’ or singer of ‘Qawwali,’ which is a traditional form of Islamic devotional music that is popular across South Asia with roots tracing back to the 13th century. The music is closely associated with Sufism, a mystical sect of Islam that is viewed as heretical by hardline groups such as the Taliban.
Sabri, the son of another legendary Qawwali singer, Ghulam Farid Sabri who died in 1994, was a fixture on national television and regularly performed on a morning show during the ongoing holy Muslim month of Ramzan. In May 2014 he was asked by a court to respond to blasphemy charges following the broadcast of a controversial song-and-dance routine that was set to a Qawwali piece about the wedding of Islam’s Prophet’s daughter to his cousin.
His killing was met with shock and condemnation. Neighbors congregated outside the singer’s home to offer condolences to his relatives, while TV channels broadcast recordings of his music in tribute.
“Totally shocked to hear the news of @AmjadSabri. May Allah bless him with Jannah for he praised Him & His Prophet beautifully all his life,” tweeted Ayaz Sadiq, the speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly. “Shocked and saddened by news of the killing of Amjad Sabri, not just a crime but an attack on our culture and heritage,” added Mustafa Qadri, a human rights researcher at Amnesty International.