KARACHI, Feb 6: A worker of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, also said to be affiliated with the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, was shot dead on Khalid Bin Waleed Road on Wednesday, police said.

They said assailants riding a motorcycle intercepted Ayaz Khan, 35, when he was heading towards his office in the morning, fired at him and rode away.

The wounded was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was working with the KESC as a meter reader and was posted at the Khalid Bin Waleed Road office of the power utility.

An ASWJ spokesman said the victim was their active member and a former in-charge of the Mehmoodabad sector of the party’s organisational structure.

A large number of people attended his funeral prayer at Makki Masjid in Mehmoodabad No 4.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the KESC expressed deep sorrow over the killing of its meter reader, Ayaz Khan, by unknown attackers at the gate of Operation Centre No 1, Bahadurabad.

It demanded a thorough inquiry into the attack and fast justice against the culprits.

The power utility also asked the law-enforcement agencies to provide foolproof security at its business centres, offices and installations so as to protect employees as well as visiting consumers.

Man killed in ‘sectarian’ attack

A young man was gunned down in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday evening. Police said assailants riding a motorbike and apparently following Syed Afzal Hussain Naqvi, 30, fired at him near Safoora Chowrangi within the remit of the Sachal police station and escaped. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was a resident of Amroha Society. Following the incident, tension gripped the locality. The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Condemning the killing, a spokesman for the Majlis Wehdat-i-Muslimeen described the murder as part of the ongoing sectarian killings taking place in the city.

However, the Sachal SHO said that apparently the victim had been killed due to his political affiliation.

One killed, two wounded in ‘snatching bid’

A man was killed and two brothers were wounded when armed men fired at them in what police described as a cash snatching attempt in the old city area on Wednesday.

Police said the two brothers, Aun Ali and Ali Raza, with their employee Aleem Pervaiz, were taking around Rs700,000 from their shop probably to a bank branch in a rickshaw when two men on a motorcycle intercepted them near the Civil Hospital Karachi and tried to snatch the cash.

Upon resistance they opened fire and fled the scene, DIG-South Shahid Hayat said, adding that as a result the employee suffered fatal bullet wounds. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where he was pronounced dead.

However, the two brothers, said to be members of the Bohra community, suffered minor wounds and were said to be in a stable condition, he added.

Two suspects killed in ‘encounter’

Two suspected bandits were killed and a policeman was wounded in what police described as an encounter in Nazimabad on Wednesday evening.

The police said two suspects were snatching valuables from some passers-by near Gol Market in Nazimabad No 3 when a police patrol arrived at the scene.

The suspects fired on the police in a bid to escape. A bullet hit police constable Mohammad Manzoor and the police also returned fire. During the shootout the two suspects suffered fatal gunshot wounds and died on the spot, the police said.

The police claimed to have recovered pistols from them.

The bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Till late in the night, both the men remained unidentified.

Body found in gunny bag

The body of an unidentified young man was found beneath the Banaras flyover on Wednesday morning.

Police said the body, stuffed in a gunny bag, bore torture marks. However, no gunshot wound was found on the body.

The police shifted the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Bus torched

Unknown men set on fire a bus in North Nazimabad on Wednesday evening.

Police said the incident took place near the Five-Star Chowrangi where armed men intercepted a bus and set it on fire.

Quoting the bus driver, North Nazimabad SP Khurram Waris said the driver had an altercation with some youngsters in the morning. He suspected that the same men torched the vehicle, he added.