KARACHI: Two more policemen were shot dead in a targeted attack in the city only a day after two traffic police constables had been killed, officials said on Thursday.

With the two killings, the number of police officials gunned down in Karachi over the past couple of weeks reached 10 in addition to the recent bomb attack that killed SP Mohammad Aslam Khan and his two police guards.

Last year as many as 166 policemen were killed in the city, according to police.

On Thursday morning, three policemen were conducting snap checking at Shafiq Mor when four men fired at them. The wounded policemen and a passerby were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced head constable Javed Allah Ditta, 45, and constable Asif Rasheed, 38, dead while the wounded constable, Mohammed Saleem, and passerby Khawand Bakhsh were admitted for treatment.

Javed received a single bullet wound in the head and Asif sustained three bullet wounds, said additional police surgeon Dr Abdul Haq.

According to SSP-Central Amir Farooqi, it was an act of targeted killing. He said the investigators found 28 spent bullet casings at the crime-scene. The victim policemen also opened fire on the suspects but it could not be confirmed whether any of the attackers was hit.

Only Wednesday night, he said, two traffic police officials were shot dead in an attack on a traffic post near Yousuf Plaza. Initial findings suggested that there were two separate groups who targeted the policemen as the modus operandi was different in the attacks.

Earlier, two policemen were shot dead in an attack on a police van in the Pirabad area on Jan 4, and another constable was gunned down by suspected gangster in the Sachal area.

On Jan 5, two policemen posted for the security of an Awami National Party leader were shot dead in an attack on a shop of the politician in Baldia Town’s Madina Colony, and a police inspector was gunned down in Orangi Town on Jan 13.

In 2013, 166 policemen were killed in Karachi, a police spokesperson said.

Doctor shot dead

A doctor was killed in Buffer Zone, police said, suspecting that motive for the murder could be sectarian.

Taimuria SHO Ejaz Lodhi said Dr Asif Hussain arrived in a car at his clinic in Sector 15-A-1 of Buffer Zone and was walking towards his clinic after parking the car when two armed pillion-riders, who were already waiting for him there, fired at him and fled.

The wounded doctor was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

“The murder appeared to be an outcome of sectarianism,” opined Central SSP Amir Farooqui.

Man found shot dead in car

A young man was found shot dead in his car, the SITE police said.

They added that 42-year-old Syed Junaid Akhter was found with a single bullet wound in his head near the Hino Pak traffic intersection.

The victim worked in a mill in SITE and was a resident of Ranchhore Line. “His cellphone and cash were not taken away, indicating that the murder is not an outcome of any robbery bid,” said SITE SP Fida Hussain Janwari.

He said investigators were trying to figure out the exact motive for the murder. Some religious literature was found in his car, the officer added.

Student shot dead

A college student was shot dead under suspicious circumstances in Bahadurabad, police said.

They said two cousins, Sajjad Sahito and Nisar Ahmed, went to the residence of their friend, Akhter Sanjrani, in KDA Scheme-1. A bullet fired ‘incidentally’ from a pistol by Akhter Sanjrani hit Sajjad in the face. The wounded youth was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

The police said all the three youngsters were friends and students of St Patrick’s College.

The suspect who is said to be a son of a KDA engineer fled while the weapon used in the incident was also missing, said Bahadurabad SHO Haider Ali Zaidi.

He said the victim’s family told the police that they would get an FIR registered after the burial. The officer said Akhter Sanjrani after wounding Sajjad brought him in a car near Karsaz from where he contacted an ambulance service, explaining that Sajjad was shot at and wounded by robbers.

Army officer wounded

An army officer was shot at and wounded near Hasan Square on Thursday morning, the Aziz Bhatti police said.

Captain Ibtisam was having juice when two suspected robbers tried to loot him. As the officer, in civil dress, put up resistance, the suspects fired at him and fled, said Aziz Bhatti SHO Ghulam Hussain Pirzado.

He said the officer was accompanied by a young woman who remained unhurt in the attack. He was rushed to the Combined Military Hospital in Malir, added the SHO.