KARACHI, April 21: A young activist of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was gunned down in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality on Thursday just two days after a paternal cousin of the victim associated with another political group met the same fate in the same area, police and party sources said.

They said Mirza Noman Baig, in his mid-20s, was in his home in Rizwan Housing Society when he was shot twice in the head by gunmen on a motorbike. After the firing, the attackers sped away, leaving him in a pool of blood. The victim was shifted to a nearby private hospital, where he died, the police said.

“He was targeted near an area mosque,” said Sub-Inspector Agha Shamshad, the SHO of the Sachal police station. Witnesses were quoted as saying that armed riders were clad in trousers and shirts. Dawn

The SHO confirmed to that the victim was the paternal cousin of Mirza Imran Baig alias Immi, an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and a resident of the same area, who was shot dead on Monday.

“While the killings one after another within the family have remained unsolved so far, we are definitely going to look into other factors as well besides the victims' political associations,” the SHO said.

The PPP leaders, however, said Noman's assassination was part of the wave of targeted killings that had claimed the lives of many party activists over the recent few weeks. They said the victim was the PPP's information secretary in UC-10 of the PS-126.

“Nearly a dozen party members in recent weeks have been brutally murdered solely on political grounds. We are committed to the policy of reconciliation but it's an attempt to harass other PPP workers in the city to keep them away from political activities,” said Sohail Abidi, a senior leader of the PPP Karachi division.

Ragpicker killed

In the early hours of the day, armed men riding a motorbike targeted a ragpicker, in his mid-20s, in the Ranchhore Line area.

The area police said Khalid, son of Sami Khan, was hit by two bullets each in the chest and head and was rushed to the civil hospital, where he died.

The victim was an Afghan national and was targeted near a garbage dump on Nishter Road, the police said. “Two men on a motorbike stopped close to him and one of them fired at him before escaping,” said an official at the Nabi Bukhsh police station. “The motive behind the killing is not yet clear.”