KARACHI, Feb 27: A lieutenant commander of the Pakistan Navy was injured in a targeted attack in Keamari area of the city on Wednesday morning.

S. Azeem Haider Kazmi was the second naval officer to have been targeted in less than a month.

Police said the incident took place in front of the KPT Gate No 15 on the road connecting Jinnah Bridge to Keamari Harbour.

“Lieutenant Commander Syed Azeem Haider Kazmi was driving his private car and was heading to work when attacked at around 6.40am,” said SSP West Asif Ajaz Shaikh.

“We have found six spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime scene,” the SSP said.

He said there was no witness account, but the shooting was suspected to have been the work of two men who were on a motorbike.

Sources said that some Navy personnel using the same road saw the injured officer and rushed him to the PNS Shifa Hospital.

The officer used to park his car at the Dock Yard and sail to the Naval Academy at Manora where he worked in the Education Branch of the Pakistan Navy.

Till late in the evening, police were waiting for the navy to come and lodged a case.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Navy said Mr Kazmi had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was operated upon for an hour at the PNS Shifa and now put on a ventilator.

“He was hit by four bullets, but no vital organ was damaged and the officer is now in stable condition,” the spokesman told Dawn.

Earlier on Feb 7, Lieutenant Commander Syed Asif Hussain Kazmi and his wife were injured when an improvised explosive planted beneath his car exploded in the premises of the PNS Karsaz.

The blast took place in the parking area of the Bahria College located behind the PNS Rahat off Karsaz Road.

The sources said that the explosive device had been fitted with a timer device.

However, a spokesman for the navy had said that it was an explosion apparently caused by CNG cylinder.

“Since there was a timer IED, it was meant to go off at the office of the officer, but on that day there was a change in the usual routine of the officer,” the sources said. Lieutenant Commander Asif was posted in the Dock Yard, they added.

Senior police officers told Dawn that police were never allowed to investigate the case and even the FIR of the incident had not been lodged.