KARACHI, March 9: Four young men were gunned down by assailants after kidnapping them on Saturday night. Their bodies were found at two separate places in Korangi in the small hours of Sunday.

Police said that in sector 26-B Area of Korangi near Darul Uloom the bodies of two young men were found bearing multiple bullet wounds. A motorcycle also lay close to the dead.

Both men were wearing shalwar-kameez, police added.

Not far away from the first crime scene, two more bodies were found in similar circumstances near the Korangi Degree College. Police also found a motorcycle lying near the bodies.

ASP Farrukh Bashir, holding the charge of the SP of Landhi, said all the four were shot with a sub-machine gun.

Identifying the victims as Saeed, Asif and Zakir and Iqbal, all friends, the ASP said they were involved in petty crimes such as motorcycle thefts. One of the two motorcycles found at the two crime scenes was stolen while the other belonged to them. However, no arms or ammunition were found in the possession of the victims, police said.

Hailing from the NWFP, they were residents of Muzaffarabad Colony in Landhi and had left home on Saturday evening together, police said.

“Circumstances suggest that they were initially kidnapped and shot at at the crime scene,” ASP Bashir said.

Police said Saeed was identified by a complainant for his involvement in a snatching incident.

Initially all the four victims were unidentified and police shifted the bodies to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a postmortem. Hospital sources said all the four victims were apparently subjected to torture before they were shot dead.

Police could not explain the motive behind the killings, but described it a result of personal enmity. They ruled out any political affiliation of the four men, saying that they were involved in petty crimes.

Meanwhile, another body of an unidentified man was found in the Pak Colony area on Sunday morning.

Police said the victim was shot in the head. His body was found in the Bakra Piri area. Police took the body to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination.

Following the legal formalities, the body was sent to the Edhi morgue for identification.