KARACHI, Jan 8: Violence broke out in parts of the city after a senior activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was gunned down in PIB Colony on Saturday that left more than a dozen men injured and three buses burnt within a few hours, police and witnesses said.

“Mr Abbas was a motorbike mechanic working near KMC Ground and opposite Faran Masjid on Martin Road when two men on a motorcycle targeted him,” said Inspector Akhtar Bangash, the SHO of the PIB Colony police station. “He was hit by five bullets, and rushed to a private hospital on Stadium Road but he couldn't survive the wounds. Casings of spent bullets found at the scene suggested a 9mm pistol was used in the attack.”

Wasay Jalil, a spokesman for the MQM, said the victim was a senior member of the organisation and had remained associated with the party as a joint sector-in-charge and a unit-in-charge of the same area.

The area police could not determine the appearance of the armed attackers, who rode away after executing the job. Following the incident, law and order in the area deteriorated and it gradually engulfed other parts of the city. Two buses were intercepted on the main Martin Road and set on fire in a flash.

“A minibus of route P-1 (JA 0919) and a bus (PO-652) burnt down before fire tenders reached the spot amid a precarious security situation,” said an official at the central fire station.

Engulfed in blazes when the fuel tank of the minibus exploded, it injured about 12 people, including a police officer, passersby and curious onlookers gathered around the vehicle. The injured were later shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment.

“The victims included area DSP Fakhr-ul-Islam, who was later moved to a private hospital in Gulshan-i-Iqbal,” said SSP Naeem Sheikh of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, adding that all injured were in a stable condition.

Violence and arson within the radius of half a kilometer forced police to close the road leading from Jail Chowrangi to PIB Colony. The traffic on Shahrah-i-Pakistan near Teen Hatti was also affected by the violence and hundreds of vehicles were seen lined up between Liaquatabad Dak-khana and Teen Hatti on both sides of the road.

“We closed the road only for security purposes and it was later opened. The violent activities were witnessed in a half-a-kilometre zone on Martin Road that we controlled in half an hour,” said SSP Sheikh.

Though the situation on Martin Road and in PIB Colony started normalising after an hour-long violent episode, intense firing in different parts of the city led to an early closure of businesses in different areas. Residents of Soldier Bazaar, Garden, a few blocks of Nazimabad and Gulistan-i-Jauhar preferred to stay indoors after heavy gunfire in their areas.

A Safari coach (JE 7402) was set on fire in Block 15 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar near Continental Bakers. A few minutes later two youngsters were shot and wounded within the remit of the same police station in separate incidents near Met Office on University Road and Jauhar Complex. The wounded were identified as Jahanzeb and Shakeel.

Last Monday night, a senior worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and another of the Awami National Party were killed in what appeared to be the year's first targeted attacks motivated by political considerations, followed by arson attacks on vehicles and incidents of firing in different parts of the city.

Adil Akhtar Jafri, 35, was heading to the MQM office in the Nazimabad area on a motorbike when two armed motorcyclists had targeted him near a fuel station at the Inquiry Office bus stop. The victim was the Nazimabad-Gulbahar joint sector-in-charge of the MQM.

In an earlier attack the same day, a senior vice president of the ANP's Al Falah Ward was killed in the Malir area.

The police said Aziz Khan, in his mid-30s, was targeted at his cabin shop in Pathan Goth on the main Jamia Millia Road. He was busy in his routine business when four men riding two motorbikes opened fire on him.