KARACHI Four young men from Balochistan were killed a little after Wednesday midnight by a team of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) in what police claimed was a shootout with bandits.

The city police chief suspended members of the team, including the ACLC's SHO, and ordered an inquiry under the supervision of DIG investigation.

According to sources, the ACLC team opened fire on the youths' car with automatic weapons near Tawakkal Motors on Khalid bin Walid Road at around 12.40am. They said two occupants of the car were killed and two others were fatally wounded.

The bodies and the injured were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where sources said the four had suffered multiple bullet wounds. The Anti-Car Lifting Cell team claimed that the occupants of the car had fired on them and they returned fire in self-defence.

However, police insiders told Dawn that the ACLC men had opened fire on the car by mistake when they and a team of Boat Basin police were looking for a black Corolla of the latest model which had been hijacked near the Bilawal Chowrangi in Clifton an hour before the shooting.

The ACLC team saw the car near Bahadurabad and started chasing it. According to the sources, the car stopped at a traffic signal on Shaheed-i-Millat Road before heading to Khalid bin Walid Road.

The sources said that the driver sped up as the ACLC team in two private cars and a police van approached them. The ACLC team followed the car and opened fire.

Meanwhile, Boat Basin police spotted the hijacked car on Sharea Faisal and in an exchange of fire one of the hijackers was injured. His accomplice drove him to Jinnah Hospital where he abandoned the car and escaped.

Amanullah Kasi adds from Quetta

Traders and activists of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) held a demonstration outside the Governor's House in protest against the killing of four traders from Chaman in Karachi.

They demanded registration of a case and arrest of the killers and gave a call for a strike in Quetta and Chaman on Thursday. A complete strike was observed in Chaman on Wednesday and several political groups announced a three-day mourning.

The victims, Haji Mohammad Tahir Achakzai, Obaidullah Khan Tareen, Mohammad Ibrahim Achakzai and Zainuddin Khan Achakzai, did business in Dubai.

Their bodies were taken in a procession from the airport and placed in front of the gate of Governor's House where the protesters chanted slogans against Karachi police.

Provincial ministers Mir Sadiq Umrani and Shafique Ahmed Khan assured the families of the victims that the government would urge the Sindh chief minister and police chief to register an FIR and arrest the policemen involved in the killing.

Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal of the PMAP, Hafiz Hamadullah of JUI-F and Hazrat Ali of Anjuman-i-Tajran Balochistan condemned the killing.

They said the men had come from the United Arab Emirates to celebrate Eid with their families. The speakers alleged that the killing was part of a conspiracy aimed at forcing Pukhtuns living in Karachi to leave the city.

They said innocent Pukhtuns had been attacked in Karachi. They warned the government of serious repercussions if the killers were not punished. The bodies were later taken to Chaman for burial.

Leaders of the Pakistan People's Party, Awami National Party, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-N and JUI-I also condemned the incident and urged the government to take action against the killers.