KARACHI, Oct 18: Two unidentified assailants on Saturday night shot dead three men near the Firdous Shopping Centre in Liaquatabad, police officials and witnesses said.

They said that the three men — later identified as Amjad Ateeq, Mohammad Shahid and Muzaffar alias Dain — were targeted by gunmen using automatic weapons as they were sitting on a pushcart near a roadside cafe off S.M. Taufiq Road. The assailants were said to be riding motorcycles.

The police later cordoned off the area. The deceased’s bodies were sent through Edhi ambulances to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where angry youths pelted stones at passing vehicles.

A police official later told this correspondent: “The incident appears to be a gang war as all of the dead belonged to a group being run by an underworld don.”

Police sources reminded that bomb explosions, occurring in the Kawish Crown Plaza also appeared to be part of an ongoing gang war.

A powerful explosion had damaged offices on the 10th floor of the building on Sharea Faisal on Sept 19.