KARACHI, Feb 4: Panic gripped the business district of the city on Monday evening when rumours about the killing of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader circulated following an attack on a PPP election rally that left a 10-year-old boy wounded in the mafia-infested Lyari.

According to the police, the boy sustained a bullet wound at around 5pm in an attack of the gangsters on the police party who were escorting the rally.

The boy, identified as Yousuf, was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi where a large number of PPP workers also assembled. Sources at the hospital said that the young boy, who sustained a bullet wound on his left leg, was in a stable condition as his injury was not life threatening.

Following the attack on the PPP election rally, the entire locality reverberated with heavy gunfire till late night as the rival gangsters took positions on rooftops in their respective strongholds. Area people said that a 22-year-old man was killed and four others sustained bullet wounds in the cross-fire.

Panick-stricken shopkeepers hurried to pull down their shutters in almost every part of the business district as traffic crawled at a snail’s pace during peak evening hours on M.A. Jinnah Road and I. I. Chundrigar Road and other adjoining streets.

The absence of the traffic police allowed a number of motorcyclists and motorists to venture into opposite directions, further aggravating the traffic chaos. There were also traffic jams in the rest of the city.

The PPP leaders alleged that the gangster, Ghaffar Zikri, and his goons opened fire on the participants when the rally reached near Gul Mohammed Lane from Chawkiwara.

The PPP leader and former Sindh Assembly speaker, Nabeel Ahmed Gabol, told Dawn that the miscreants opened fire on the participants from the narrow lanes. “I had already asked the police to ensure security to the rally in view of the reports that miscreants from Baldia Town and Pak Colony might attack us,” he added.

The PPP leader said that the boy received a bullet when miscreants opened fire on the rally, which originated from Lyari Football Ground in Kalakot. “The attack on our rally is aimed at destroying the electoral atmosphere,” he said.

He said that the attackers from other localities gathered at Ali Mohammed Mohalla, an area stretching between the police limits of Baghdadi and Kalri.

Lyari SP Fayyaz Khan said that the main target of the gangsters was police, who had killed one of their accomplices, Ismail Afghani, a couple of days ago.

He said that two police parties were escorting the rally. “The gangsters opened fire on the police party when the rally was passing through the Singu Lane where the boy was injured,” the official said.