KARACHI: At least two people, including a local leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), were killed Friday in different incidents of violence in Karachi.
Meanwhile, Rangers personnel arrested 11 suspects in a separate search operation carried out in the city’s Baldia Town area.
Police said political activist Lal Darwesh Khan, 35, was shot dead by unknown assailants in Orangi Town. Abdul Moeed, an officer at the local police station, said the victim was a local leader of the ANP. He said Darwesh received two bullets in his upper torso and died before he could be taken to hospital. The body was later shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for an autopsy.
In a similar incident, 35-year-old Qasim was gunned down by unidentified armed men at the Yousuf Goth bus terminal in Baldia Town. Police said the victim, who was a transporter by profession, was at a local hotel when gunmen opened fire. The body was later shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi.
Following the killing, transporters staged a protest on the Hub River Road due to which traffic remained blocked in the area.
Separately, unknown men hurled a hand-grenade in the city’s Kharadar area. The bomb was defused with the timely intervention of a Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) team.
Meanwhile, a large contingent of Rangers personnel reached the Gulshan-i-Ghazi area of Baldia Town and sealed its entry and exit points.
The paramilitary force also searched various houses in the locality during which 11 suspects, out of which three said to be involved in extortion and kidnapping activities, were taken into custody. A spokesman for the Sindh Rangers said 27 different kinds of weapons were recovered from the suspects during the raid.
Earlier on Thursday, three suspected militants were killed during an exchange of fire with personnel from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the city’s Mauripur area.
According to SSP Chaudhry Aslam, the deceased men belonged to banned militant organisation Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.
On the same day, Rangers personnel carried out targeted operations in several parts of Karachi as the federal government approved action against lawlessness and terrorism in Sindh’s provincial capital. During the search operations, various suspects were taken into custody.
