KARACHI, Dec 1: At least 12 more people were killed on Monday in different parts of the city, raising the death toll to 40 in the ongoing wave of ethnic violence across the city.

Mobs continued to burn houses, shops and vehicles in the violence-hit areas in a third day of riots, police and witnesses said.

Riots broke out on Saturday afternoon in Banaras Chowk and the law-enforcement agencies have failed to contain the wave of ethnic violence despite the passage of two days. Fear continues to stalk the streets of the city.

While the violence mainly hit the city’s western parts such as Orangi Town, Baldia Town and its adjoining areas, the streets were mostly empty by early evening, though a number of public and private vehicles appeared in the morning.

Most shopping centres remained either closed or partially open, but shopkeepers in different localities kept the shutters down amid growing tension and fear.The bullet-riddled bodies of two men in their mid 30s were found in the Lyari River in the limits of Rizvia Society police. The victims remained unidentified.

A man was killed and three others were wounded in a firing incident near Siddique-i-Akbar Colony in Orangi Town. The Pakistan Bazaar police said that the victim was identified as Noor Mohammed, son of Madad Khan, and the wounded included Shah Alam, Shahzad and Tanveer.

An unidentified man was shot dead by a mob at Shama Ground in Sector 11 of the Orangi Town. The Mominabad police said that the miscreants also burnt the body. A man, Salim, was also shot and wounded in the locality, they said.

The Zaman Town police said that a mob shot an owner of a garbage godown at Sector 50-C in Korangi. They said the miscreants also set the godown on fire and threw the victim, Juma Gul, son of Ata Mohammed, into the flames.

They said that an unidentified man was shot dead by rioters at Sector 50-C in Korangi.

A man, identified as Gul Bahadur Khan, son of Taj Mohammed Khan, was killed and another man, Gulab Khan, wounded when unknown miscreants opened fire on them in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. A 30-year-old man, Sikander, son of Rustum, was shot dead and another man, Alam, son of Maroof, wounded in an attack near Baitul Mukarrum Masjid in the vicinity, they said. The police said that the vicitm were asleep in their makeshift huts when they were attacked.

A man, identified as Ahmed, son of Nadir Khan, was killed in Balida Town in the limits of Saeedabad police.

An assistant sub-inspector of Landhi police was gunned down near his police station. The police said that ASI Mirza Yasin Baig left the police station for a nearby mosque to offer Zuhar prayers when unknown attackers opened fire on him killing him instantly.

The police surgeon, Dr Hamid Pariyar, told Dawn that six bodies were brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, four to the Civil Hospital and two to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

The hospital sources said over 60 people were injured in different parts of the city.

The miscreants set fire to a timber shop near Nazia Square in New Karachi. A taxi and a shop were torched in Orangi Town.

At least five houses were set on fire in Raees Amrohvi Colony, a shantytown in Orangi Town.