Gunmen kill prominent social activist in Karachi

Unknown gunmen have shot to death a prominent woman development worker during the latest violent attacks in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, police officials say.

Parveen Rehman, 56, was killed on Wednesday while traveling in her car in Orangi Town, a town in the northwestern part of Karachi.

Rehman “was on her way back home when armed motorcyclists intercepted her car and shot her dead,” AFP quoted Javed Odho, a senior police official, as saying.

She was reportedly hit with at least four bullets.

A prominent social activist, Rehman was director of Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), a socially innovative project that involves residents solving sanitation problems of the community. She won a UN-Habitat award in 2001.

In January, 2013, Pakistan’s Citizens-Police Liaison Committee issued a report, saying that 2,124 people died in the city in 2012 due to violence linked to ethnic and political tensions.