KARACHI, Sept 12: A man was shot dead in a suspected sectarian attack in Orangi Town on Thursday, according to the police.

They said that Syed Shahid Ali Zaidi, 50, was gunned down near the Raees Amrohi roundabout by armed motorcyclists.

He sustained two bullet wounds and was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared dead.

Iqbal Market SHO Amjad Kiani said the victim had been a salesman and supplied cigarettes etc to shopkeepers in Sector 11½. “The victim had left his home in Sector 10 to provide goods to the shopkeepers when he was targeted,” he said.

Body found in Gutter Baghicha

A young man was found shot dead in Benazir Park, popularly known as Gutter Baghicha, in Old Golimar, according to the Pak Colony police.

They said the victim, in his early 20s, wore jeans and a white T-shirt and had a single bullet wound to the head. Pak Colony SHO Bilal Raza said that the suspects had dumped the body in the park from a white car. The victim’s identity could not be ascertained immediately.

Prisoner escapes from hospital

A prisoner, who had been convicted of committing a street crime, managed to escape on Thursday from the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) where he had been undergoing treatment, said jail officials.

They said that Wazir Masih had been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011 for mobile snatching and had been kept in the Central Jail where his health deteriorated on Wednesday. Doctors in the jail hospital examined Masih, who had been bleeding, and then referred him to the CHK for further treatment. According to a jail official, Naseer Shah, the prisoner had to be taken to hospital on a stretcher. However, he said, Masih managed to escape from the hospital when he was taken for a medical test.

The official said that two policemen, Haroon and Asif, had been arrested on charges of negligence of duty and were handed over to the Eidgah police for further legal proceedings.

‘Extortionist’ arrested

The Rangers while conducting targeted action near Murshid Hospital on Hub River Road arrested two extortionists who had been demanding Rs3 million from a businessman.

The criminals had asked the businessman to send his wife with the protection money to a spot near Murshid Hospital. However, Rangers’ troops acted swiftly and arrested the two men and seized weapons from them.

182 men held

The Rangers while conducting raids on different areas in the city, including Naseerabad Pipri, Ghafoor Basti, Mehran Town, Dawood Goth and Shoe Market on Wednesday night, caught 30 alleged criminals who include anti-social elements and extortionists affiliated with political groups and Lyari gang-war, according to the Rangers spokesperson. Weapons were also recovered from these men, he added.

Meanwhile, the Karachi police conducted 129 raids in different parts of the city and detained 152 more suspects including an alleged terrorist and two alleged murders.

The spokesperson for Karachi police said that 41 detained suspects were absconders/proclaimed offenders, 38 had been detained on charges of possessing illegal weapons and while 15 were involved in narcotic cases.

Around 39 different types of weapons, five improvised explosive material and narcotics were also recovered from the men, he added.