KARACHI, June 18: The bodies of three Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers were found stuffed in gunny bags in Lyari as city peace remained elusive with targeted attacks on political and sectarian grounds as well as armed clashes between criminal gangs in different parts of the city claimed nine more lives, police and party sources said on Monday.

On Mirza Adam Khan Road in Lyari, an abandoned car was spotted with suspicious bags. When examined, the police said, three youngsters were found shot dead in separate bags – two of them were placed in the backseat and the third one was in the car’s trunk.

“Later it was found that the 800cc car (AJS-132) was snatched in the Ferozabad police station area,” said an official at the Chakiwara police station. “The three youngsters were shot multiple times at a very close range. The bodies remained unidentified for almost an hour and were recognised by their family members when they were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities.”

All victims – Hasan Raza, Ijtaba Khan and Atif Usmani in their middle and late 30s – were residents of Sector 7-D of North Karachi and had left home a couple of days ago to have dinner together in an old city area.

“They were definitely kidnapped and tortured before being shot dead. The police have cordoned off Gulistan Colony – the closest neighbourhood where the bodies were found – to conduct a search operation,” said SSP-South Aif Ejaz Sheikh, after the bodies were found.

The MQM condemned the killings and blamed ‘elements of Lyari gangs’ for the kidnapping and murder of the three workers.

“The victims were the MQM workers,” said Wasay Jalil of the MQM. “It’s a brutal act of terrorism and the enemies of the city and Pakistan are targeting innocent workers of the MQM for their nefarious designs. We do not have even a shadow of a doubt that the job is done by the Lyari gangsters.”

A worker of the MQM and his friend were gunned down in Landhi on Monday, police said.

They said 45-year-old Afsar Khan, a member of the Muttahida Organising Committee, and 30-year-old Zubair Khan were sitting in Afsar’s scrap warehouse when two men on a motorbike pulled up outside the facility.

“One of the riders got off the motorbike, walked into the godown and fired several shots at the two men,” said Inspector Amanullah Marwat, the SHO of the Quaidabad police station, quoting eyewitnesses. “The attackers sped away after the firing. The victims lived in the same area.”

He said he was unaware of the people and motive for the attacks, but was convinced that the attackers’ target was Afsar Khan, and Zubair fell prey to the indiscriminate firing inside the congested warehouse.

“Afsar had a shaky history of political loyalty as before joining the MQM’s MOC, he was actively associated with the ANP. But the motive for the attack on him is not yet clear,” he said, adding that the victim was the father of five and originally hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Prayer leader

After sunset, a prayer leader was gunned down in Nazimabad.

Though the area police showed unawareness about the people behind the killing of Allama Ghulam Amini, they were sure that the motive for the killing was sectarian.

“He was targeted near Gol Maidan in Nazimabad No 3,” said DSP Shahid Abbas, the area’s sub-divisional police officer (SDPO). “Scheduled loadshedding was under way in the area when he was targeted. We are not very sure about the number of attackers and their mode of transport, but multiple accounts suggest that two men on a motorbike targeted him when he was going somewhere.”

He said the victim suffered three bullet wounds and died on the spot. The body was later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where a large number of area people converged.

“In his mid-50s, he was Pesh Imam of Jama Masjid Noor-i-Iman in Nazimabad No 3 and resident of Gulbahar,” said DSP Abbas. “Apparently there is no motive other than sectarian behind his killing. The family also denies his personal enmity with any individual or group.”

His assessment echoed in the reaction that came shortly after the incident from the Wahdat-i-Muslimeen, which condemned the killing and termed it the continuation of ‘persistent violence against a particular community’.

“The government has failed to stem violence and no credible action is seen on ground against the banned outfits, which are involved in these killings and openly claim responsibility for acts of terror,” said Maulana Hasan Zafar Naqvi.

Two young men

Police found the bullet riddled bodies of two young men in New Karachi in the small hours of the day.

They said the victims were identified as Barkat, in his mid-30s, and Ismail, 23.“Both are the residents of Sohrab Goth,” said Inspector Ilyas Shah, the SHO of the Bilal Colony police station. “Their bodies were found on an open plot in Sector 5-D of New Karachi. Both had a history of criminal records and were nominated in several cases of robberies.”

He said the police believed that they were killed over some internal dispute of the robbers gang they were associated with.

“Both had a single bullet wound each to the head and several marks on the bodies that suggested they were kidnapped and tortured before being shot dead,” added the SHO.

Aged man

In Mohammadi Muhallah of Frontier Colony an aged man was gunned down on Monday, a few months after his younger brother was murdered.

The area police said 68-year-old Sher Ali was shot twice by gunmen when he was sitting outside his home. The victim had contested for a councillor seat in the 2005 local bodies’ elections but had lost in the contest.

“The victim, a retired seaman, originally came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but had settled here for years,” said a police official. “A few months ago his younger brother was killed in a similar manner. The body was handed over to the family after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.”