KARACHI, Oct 15: Five workers of the outlawed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat were gunned down in two separate acts of violence in the city on Monday, police said.

Four of the ASWJ activists, including two brothers, were gunned down in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Monday evening. Earlier in the day an activist of the party was shot dead in Gulberg.

The police said the latest incident took place in Scout Colony, off Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, within the remit of the Mobina Town police station.

“The four men were sitting at a shop located outside Masjid Siddiq-i-Akbar, off Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, where they were targeted by assailants riding motorcycles,” said DIG-East Shahid Hayat.

“Two of the four victims were brothers,” he said, adding that they were killed in a sectarian attack.

The critically wounded victims were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

The victims were identified as Umar Haq Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Asadullah Khan and Imran.

The funeral prayers for Umar Haq Nawaz and Abdul Shakoor were held on the main Abul Hassan Ispahani Road.Police said Umar worked at a shop selling caps and perfume outside the mosque.

His friend Abdul Shakoor was also present at the shop when his guests Asadullah and Imran, both brothers and residents of Manghopir, arrived there.

Police said the brothers hailed from Swat.

They said the motorbike-riding suspects, said to be four to five, arrived at the shop and sprayed the four men with bullets.

Following the incident tension gripped the entire locality and shops and markets of the area were shut down. Additional police and Rangers personnel were deployed in the area to avert a law and order situation.

Police collected around a dozen spent bullet casings of 9mm and 30-bore pistol from the crime scene.

Soon after the incident, a spokesman for the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat claimed that the four men were the party’s workers. The spokesman condemned the killings and called for the immediate arrest of the suspects involved in the crime.

In an early morning incident, another ASWJ activist was gunned down in Gulberg, the police said. The police said the incident took place in Moosa Colony within the remit of the Gulberg police station, where Abdul Hanan, 27, was working in his air-conditioning and refrigerator repair shop when two suspects riding a motorcycle came at the shop and opened fire on him.

Police said Hanan was repairing a fridge when suspects shot him in the head. The victim died before he could be taken to hospital.

Gulberg police station SHO Amjad Kayani said the victim was a resident of Kausar Niazi Colony in North Nazimabad, father of a child and the owner of the shop.

ASWJ spokesman Maulana Saeed Akbar said the victim, an active worker of the party belonging to the North Nazimabad sector, was killed in a sectarian attack. The deceased hailed from southern Punjab.

The ASWJ spokesman announced a ‘day of mourning’ for Tuesday and a ‘day of protest’ for Friday across Sindh in connection with the killing of their five workers on a single day. He said their workers were being killed because of government inaction.