KARACHI, Aug 21: Seven people, including a Customs official who was also a member of the Ahmadiyya community, were gunned down in targeted attacks in the city on Wednesday, police said.

They said that two armed motorcyclists targeted Zahoor Ahmed Kayani, 46, outside his home in Mujahid Colony in Orangi Town. The attackers also killed his neighbour and friend Noorul Wahid, a non-Ahmadi, when he tried to save him.

Both victims sustained multiple bullet wounds and were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead.

Mominabad SHO Ahmed Butt suspected personal enmity behind the murder. Mr Kayani was an employee of the Customs and father of seven, he said.

However, a spokesperson for the Anjuman-i-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (AAP) said in a statement that Mr Kayani was a member of the party and had become a victim of ‘religious hatred’. His friend was killed because he tried to resist the assailants, he added.

The AAP members were being targeted in Karachi but the government had failed to curb such killings, although it was the state’s responsibility to provide protection to all its citizens irrespective of their faith, he said.

Two killed in Sohrab Goth attack

A shopkeeper and a boy were killed when gunmen fired indiscriminately in a Sohrab Goth market on Wednesday in what police described as an extortion-related attack.

The police said that armed men resorted to firing in the Super Market near the terminal of 4-L bus and, as a result, shopkeeper Mohammed Yousuf, 40, died on the spot while Atta Rehman, 12, died during treatment at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Sohrab Goth SHO Mohammed Naeem said that two other boys, identified as Irshad, 12, and Sajjad, 10, also sustained bullet wounds. Irshad was admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), while the whereabouts of Sajjad were not known, he added.

“The incident might be extortion related,” said Sohrab Goth DSP Mohammed Khalid.

Besides, he said two groups of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan were also fighting with each other to establish their control in the area and the infighting had intensified following the killing of Sher Khan Mehsud in Manghopir a few days ago.

Man shot dead in Korangi

The owner of a poultry shop was shot dead in Korangi Industrial Area on Wednesday.

Police said Rana Mohammed Arshad, 30, was standing outside his shop in P&T Colony when two armed motorcyclists targeted him and rode away. He was taken to the JPMC where doctors declared him dead.

The victim originally hailed from Mandi Bahauddin.

The family told the police that they would get an FIR lodged after burial there.

Teenager found shot dead

A teenage boy was found shot dead near Pakhtunkhwa Chowk in Korangi Industrial Area’s Sector-8-A.

Police said the body of Umar Ali, 17, was found on late Tuesday night.

The victim’s mother told the police that he left home at 11pm to see a friend, Shoaib Bengali.

The family lodged an FIR in which they expressed their suspicions about the possible involvement of Shoaib in the killing.

The police said Shoaib had criminal record and they suspected that the victim was also involved in some criminal activity.

They said that in the same area, four armed men shot and wounded a shopkeeper, Dilawar Khan, and the spent bullet casings found from both spots had matched.

Robbers kill man

A young man was shot dead when he resisted a robbery bid in Saeedabad on Wednesday, police said.

They said that the man, identified as Malang Abbas, 40, suffered bullet wounds near 100 Quarters Road in Yusuf Goth. He was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where he died.

Saeedabad SHO Zafar Iqbal said the victim was a ‘commission agent’.

Young man shot dead

A young man was shot dead in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality, police said.

SSP-East Imran Shaukat said that Ashraf Musharraf, 21, had a scuffle with someone near Pehlwan Goth who fired at him. He sustained multiple bullet wounds and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced him dead.

He sold kebabs on a pushcart.