KARACHI, Sept 4: A police officer and a tailor were gunned down apparently on sectarian grounds on Tuesday in the city that also witnessed two killings in an attack on a roadside tea shop in the morning, said officials.

Additional IG Karachi Iqbal Mehmood said that it was too early to conclude that the killing of the assistant sub-inspector and the tailor were linked or one was a reaction to the other.

“There are a lot of possible angles to the ASI’s killing,” the city police chief said.

ASI Syed Ali Mohsin Jafri was sprayed with bullets in Khudadad Colony within the remit of the Brigade police station soon after he left his Lines Area home for work, the officials said.

The 40-year-old officer was posted in the east zone intelligence branch of police and was heading to office when he was gunned down by four men riding two motorbikes, the police said.

He sustained five gunshot wounds to upper parts of his body and died on the spot, the police investigators said.

They said the police collected spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol at the crime scene and shifted his body to the Jinnah Postgraduate MedicalCentre for medico-legal formalities.

“As the names suggests, the victim was apparently targeted on sectarian grounds,” said SP Gulshan Division Asad Raza.

He said the victim had served as head moharrir at the Brigade and Ferozabad police stations. He was also said to have worked as abodyguard of the slain Inspector Nasirul Hasan, the SP added.

“We made use of his services in negotiating with the Ahle Tashee community at the Numaish intersection on different occasions,” SP Raza recalled. The slain officer was the father of three daughters, the police said.

The victim’s body was later shifted from the hospital to Imambargah Shah-i-Karbala, Rizvia, for funeral prayar. The body was then taken to Wadi-i-Hussain graveyard for burial after Maghrib.

In New Karachi, a tailor said to be the brother of an Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat activist was shot dead at his shop, police and party sources said.

Two men riding a motorcycle opened fire on the shop, situated in Sector 5-F, and fled, said an official at the New Karachi Industrial Area police station.

He added that the shop owner, Zaid Ashraf, 27, sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was admitted. He died during treatment on Tuesday evening, the official added.

New Karachi Industrial Area SHO Ishtiaq Ghori said the police investigators seized three spent bullet casings of 30-bore pistol found at the crime scene.

The victim was a resident of Rajput Colony and got married a year ago, the police said, adding that personal enmity could be a motive for the killing.

But ASWJ spokesman Taj Hanafi said: “The suspects had come looking for Ashraf’s brother who is our activist. Since he was not present there, they killed him,” he added.

The area deputy superintendent of police corroborated the story, explaining that the victim’s brother was an ASWJ activist and apparently he was the target. But he was not present at the shop at the time of the attack, the DSP said.

Two killed in Orangi

Two men were killed and another wounded in a gun attack in Orangi Town’s Frontier Colony in the early hours of Tuesday, police said.

The officials added that all the three victims were having morning tea at a roadside tea shop in Noorani Mohallah where they were fired at.

As a result of the firing, Zamin Shah, 30, and Zakir Hussain, 35, died on the spot while Gul Hayat sustained gunshot wounds, said an official at the Pirabad police station.

The police investigators found at least 10 spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol at the crime scene.

Hearing gunfire, residents rushed out of their homes and shifted the bodies and the wounded victim to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

A senior police officer of the area said that Mr Shah and Mr Hussain were watchmen. Both hailed from Swat, he added.

They were in possession of a repeater gun and a TT pistol but failed to defend themselves as they were having tea when attacked, the officer said.

The police quoted area people as saying that the three men had been hired about a month back due to rising number of armed robberies in the area. Recently they had foiled a robbery bid though the robbers fled, the residents were quoted as saying. People suspected that the attack was carried out by the same gang of robbers, the police said.