KARACHI: A Pakistan Army soldier and a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were shot dead while their friend was wounded in an armed attack in a Malir locality on Tuesday, police said.

They said that gunmen riding a motorbike emerged at an Atta chakki (small flour mill) in Al-Badar Society, fired a volley of bullets on the three friends sitting there and rode away.

The bullets hit 25-year-old Shoaib Ejaz, 29-year-old Shafi Alam aka Bhayya and 23-year-old Yasir Hussain.

Mr Ejaz, a sepoy in the army, was shifted to the Combined Military Hospital, Malir Cantt, where he died during treatment, said Al-Falah SHO Inspector Sarfaraz Gondal.

He said that Mr Alam and Mr Hussain were moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the former died. They belonged to the Unit 103 of the MQM organisational structure, he added.

The SHO said that all the three victims were residents of the same area. The army man had come home on leave. He said that the motive for the killings was not yet clear.

“They used to sit at that place in the evening and it’s quite a busy area,” he said. “We have collected nine spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol from the crime scene.

Investigations are at an initial stage and it will be too early to reach any conclusion.”

Man killed in Landhi A man was killed in Landhi on Tuesday, police said.

They said two men on a motorbike attacked Manzoor Zaki, 40, near Murtaza Chowrangi when he was heading home in Gulistan-i-Jauhar in his jeep.

“He sustained two bullet wounds and died on the spot,” said an official at the Sharafi Goth police station. “The victim was an employee of an oil refinery and resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar.”

The police said that the motive for the killing was not yet known.

Killing in Shah Faisal Colony A 47-year-old man was shot dead in his Shah Faisal Colony home in the early hours of Tuesday.

Police said that the killing remained a mystery as the victim’s family said that he was killed during an armed robbery bid in their house.

“The family said that two men stormed into their house in Al-Haider Colony,” said Shah Faisal Colony SHO Inspector Nasim Farooqi.

“When one of the family members, Malik Iftikhar, resisted they fired shots and ran away. The bandits did not take away anything.”

He said that members of the family gave contradictory statements, which cast doubts on their claim.

He said that the police had not yet registered any FIR.