KARACHI, March 16: Nine people, including two activists of the Sunni Tehrik (ST) and one worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), were killed on Sunday in acts of violence in different parts of the city, police and witnesses said.
They said a unit-in-charge of the ST and a party worker were attacked in Sector 5-G of New Karachi by four assailants on two motorcycles.
The witnesses said the 25-year-old unit chief, Adnan, son of Ansar, was standing with a party worker, Ijaz Ahmed, near a rent-a-car office at around 6.35pm when the attackers came there and opened fire on them.
They said Ijaz ran away as he saw Adnan being hit in the head by the attackers. However, the witnesses said, the attackers chased him and shot him dead.
They said a nine-year-old girl also sustained a bullet wound as the attackers opened fire upon the ST worker. She was identified as Sidra, resident of the same vicinity where the incident took place.
The New Karachi SHO, however, said only two men, including the ST unit-in-charge, were killed in separate incidents of firing.
He said the police had no information about the killing of any girl.
The witnesses said the ST unit chief had died instantly, while the ST worker was fatally wounded and died a little after he was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital along with the body of Adnan.
Hospital sources said both victims received four bullets each from a very close range. They said Adnan was shot in the head and upper torso, while Ijaz received one bullet each in his jaw, chest, right hand and leg.
Tension gripped the vicinity, where shopkeepers pulled down their shutters immediately after the incident and traffic disappeared from the streets.
Later, police intensified patrolling of the troubled area.
Meanwhile, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was targeted and shot dead in Sector 5-G of North Karachi by four attackers on two bikes.
The body of Arshad, 26, was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Bilal Colony SHO Ghayoor Ahmed said the incident might be a retaliation of the killing of ST men in neighbouring New Karachi.
The incident led to tension and panic in the vicinity.
Couple shot
A 55-year-old man and his 30-year-old wife were shot dead at a ground near Hundu Muslim Goth in the police limits of Gulshan-i-Maymar.
The victims were shifted to Abbasi Hospital where they were identified as Meraj Gul and Nisha, hailing from Mardan.
Police said two unknown assailants, riding a motorcycle, opened fire on the couple around 3.30pm and fled.
SHO Mohammed Asif Tarar told Dawn that the double murder seemed to be motivated by personal enmity. “We are trying to locate the family of the victims,” he added.
Bullet-riddled body
The bullet-riddled body of a young man was found in Khokhrapar.
It was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where the victim remained unidentified.
Hospital sources said the victim, wearing light coloured trousers and a shirt, was in his early twenties. They said the victim, who was blindfolded with his hands tied together, received at least six bullets.
The sources said the victim was also subjected to severe torture before he was shot.
Ex-councillor’s son
Unknown assailants shot dead a 26-year-old man in the Korangi Industrial Area.
Victim Faisal was the son of a former area councillor, Nisar Ahmed, who belonged to the Jamaat-i-Islami.
Witnesses said the young man was standing at some distance from his house in Sector H, when armed men arrived there in a car. They said the attackers first made the victim run and then opened fire on him, killing him instantly.
Man killed, woman injured
A 35-year-old man was shot dead and a woman injured in Nazar Hussain Goth in Surjani Town.
Police said Mohammed Mohsin, a brick trader, and Bibi Khatoon, wife of Nazeer Brohi, were shot by the woman’s father Abdur Raheem, who fled after the incident.
They said Mohammed Mohsin was living with his paternal uncle, Mohammed Naeem, who was a neighbour of the suspect.
Police said the man and the woman were shot at the house of Mohsin’s uncle.
The body and the injured woman were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Bibi Khatoon was stated to be in a precarious condition.
