• Facing a murder trial, victims were on their way to appear before court
• Survivor Shanzeb identifies prime suspect as slain brother’s father-in-law

KARACHI: In what appeared to be an incident of revenge killing, nine assailants sprayed a car with bullets near Guru Mandir, killing two brothers and wounding their as many siblings on Thursday morning.

The fifth brother, who was also in the car, remained unhurt in the attack, police said.

The victims were heading towards a court to appear as accused in a murder case when their car was ambushed in broad daylight.

The police said that the killers and their victims were close relatives and the attack was motivated by some personal enmity.

CCTV footage that went viral on social media showed that six assailants on three motorcycles encircled the car from three sides and opened indiscriminate fire. They were not wearing any masks.

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Jamshed Quarters SHO Imtiaz Husain Shah told Dawn that when the victims’ car reached Fatima Bai Hospital on Business Recorder Road at around 8am, nine suspects riding four motorcycles intercepted the vehicle and opened fire on their car.

The driver accelerated the speed of the car to escape but the assailants chased the vehicle and opened indiscriminate fire as soon as the car slowed near the Mehrab Travel office. As a result, two brothers — Sajid Aurangzeb, 42, and Umair, 27 — sitting on the front seat suffered multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot.

Their three other brothers, who were sitting on the back seat, got off the car in their attempt to flee for safety. However, the assailants also targeted them and two of them — Zubair and Wajid — suffered bullet wounds. However, 22-year-old Shanzeb remained unhurt in the firing.

The wounded were shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital for treatment.

The SHO said Shanzeb identified five of the nine attackers as Mian Zar, his three sons — Arshad, Rashid and Riaz— and Riaz’s son Amir.

The prime suspect Mian Zar was the father-in-law of one of the brothers, Sajid, the SHO said.

Mian Zar’s son Muhammad Aijaz Mian was gunned down on Dec 23, 2023 and his son Riaz had nominated the five brothers in the FIR, the SHO said.

He said that the five brothers had obtained bail from the court and they were on way to appear before the court when the deadly incident took place.

The police said that both the families owned ice cream parlours in the Guru Mandir area.

Jamshed SP Aleena Rajpar told the media that investigators had collected 17 spent bullet casings from the crime scene.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024