People gather outside the franchise of a local telecom company after a firing incident in North Nazimabad Town Area on Tuesday. – Photo by Online

KARACHI: The metropolis was witnessing a surge in target killings as 10 people died in a renewed wave of sectarian and ethnic killings in the past 24 hours, DawnNews reported on Tuesday.

The menace of target killings has raised its head again in the Quaid’s city and several people have been victimised in the past few hours.

In the latest development, unidentified men ambushed a mobile phone franchise in Nazimabad. Two people, including a woman, died during the armed attack.

Moreover, a man was killed in a knife attack in the city’s Surjani Town area.

Separately, a 40-year-old doctor was also killed in the city’s Malir Halt area on Tuesday morning.

On Monday night, MPA Mir Bakhtiar Domki’s wife and their daughter died in an incident of target killing.

They were returning home after attending a wedding overnight when their car was intercepted by two motorcyclists who shot them and their driver dead, police official Rahim Ullah said.

“Some of those were killed because of sectarian reasons.” A security official said at least 25 people had been killed over the last week, mostly as part of sectarian conflict between Pakistan's majority Sunni and minority Shia Muslim communities.

“Terrorists killed people including three lawyers and two doctors because of their sects,” the official said.

Zohra Yusuf, the head of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, said data was still being compiled but that 35 to 40 people had been killed in sectarian violence in Karachi this month.

Moreover, three activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were gunned down in the city’s North Karachi area.

In Karachi’s F. B area, Taseer Abbas, the 25-year-old manager of a fast food outlet, was shot dead late on Monday.

Police and Rangers personnel had started patrolling the affected areas.

The rangers cordoned off the areas of Liaquatabad, Illyas Goth, Baloch Para and Orangi Town and conducted a search operation.

After a six-hour-long operation, 36 suspects were arrested and weapons were seized from their possession, sources told DawnNews.

Pakistan's rights bodies said more than 1,000 people were killed in violence in Karachi last year, including more than 100 in one week alone in October.