KARACHI, May 10: Just hours before polling is set to start on Saturday, a candidate backed by the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (better known as MQM-Haqiqi) for PS-95 Orangi was gunned down leading to the postponement of election on the seat while a PPP candidate for PS-125 was believed to have been kidnapped in the city on Friday.

Earlier on April 2, a covering candidate of PPP for the same constituency, Adnan, was shot dead in a targeted attack in Orangi Town two days after he had filed his nomination papers.

The MQM-H candidate Shakeel Ahmed accompanied by his colleagues, Yousuf and Shakir, was on his way to the party leader Afaq Ahmed’s residence when they were attacked by gunmen at the Bismillah roundabout in Landhi, according to police and a party official.

Mr Ahmed was hit in the head and died instantly while his colleagues suffered gunshot wounds, though they were said to be out of danger.

Landhi SHO A.D. Chaudhry said that Mr Ahmed was associated with the MQM-H, while a party spokesman said the victim was contesting PS-95 as an independent candidate but the party was supporting him. He was a member of the MQM’s Orangi sector, he said.

Sindh Election Commissioner S.M. Tariq Qadri told Dawn that polling on PS-95 would be postponed under the election laws.

PPP candidate goes missing

The PPP candidate for PS-125 in Korangi who went missing on Friday was believed to have been kidnapped, according to party sources and police.

Allama Nasrullah Madani left his residence to offer Friday prayers in Bilal Colony but did not return home.

The PPP Sindh spokesman, Waqar Mehdi, said that since Friday afternoon, Mr Madani’s mobile phone numbers were not responding and his whereabouts were not known.

He suspected that the party candidate might have been kidnapped. He said that a complaint about his disappearance had been lodged at the Korangi Industrial Area police station.

The PPP’s candidate for the National Assembly in the same locality, Abdul Sattar Channa, has moved an application to police asking them to lodge an FIR about kidnapping of his colleague.

Muttahida worker killed

A Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker was shot dead when a group of gunmen stormed an MQM office in Landhi-6 and opened fire on it, said police.

As a result, Altaf Hussain, 28, who was sitting there suffered serious gunshot wounds and later died during treatment at the hospital.

Landhi then became in the grip of fear as gunmen resorted to firing into the air in certain troubled areas following the murder of the Muttahida worker and assassination of the MQM-H candidate.

A passerby, Mohammad Ali, died when gunmen opened fire on a hotel in Landhi, said police.

ANP worker gunned down

A worker of the Awami National Party, Zakir Hussain Kakar, 35, was gunned down by four gunmen riding two motorcycles when he was sitting at his restaurant in Lasi Goth in the Sohrab Goth area, police said.

Police saw the murder as an offshoot of a personal enmity. However, an ANP spokesperson said the victim was an active member of the party in Sohrab Goth.