KARACHI, Nov 19: At least three men, including a political activist, were killed on Wednesday, the first day of Eidul Azha, in two separate incidents of firing in different areas of the city over collection of hides of sacrificial animals, police said on Friday.

Though most of the city witnessed no serious clash between welfare organisations backed by political parties, charities and non-government organisations — except for a few incidents of brawls in different areas — Lyari and Gulshan-i-Iqbal emerged as the two trouble spots where firing between competing groups claimed two lives and left more than half a dozen people wounded.

In the first incident, a few men said to be associated with a criminal gang operating in Lyari commanded people of a community to surrender the hides of their sacrificial animals, but the latter resisted.

“It’s a Niazi Mohallah in Daryabad of Lyari where people from a particular community sacrifice dozens of cattle every year,” said Inspector Yousuf Baloch, the SHO of the Kalri police station. “For the last few days these people were being warned by suspected gangsters to give them the hides of their animals after slaughter.”

However, he said, the participants of the cattle sacrifice were not willing to give in to the demand for surrender of hides.

“On the morning of Eid more than half a dozen men visited the area and after a brief exchange of hot words tried to snatch hides from the victims amid serious resistance that led to a scuffle between the two sides,” said the Kalri police station SHO.

“As the tension intensified in the area, aides of the gunmen fired multiple shots at people resisting, leaving several men wounded. Two of the wounded — Mohammad Fayyaz and Sammiullah, both in their early 30s — died during treatment at the Civil Hospital Karachi,” he said.

He added that Fayyaz hailed from Gojra, Punjab.

He said the other wounded persons — Wasim, Shahzad, Asad, Rahman Shah, Malik Noor Khan, Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Yaqoob — were shifted to different wards of the CHK after surgeries and dressing of their wounds.

Though the police registered an FIR (373/2010) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the suspects — Fahim, Shakil, Shahid Darinda, Wasim, Khadim Hussain, Abdul Basit and Saeed Bengali — on the complaint of an area resident, Muhammad Ali, they failed to arrest any of them even after three days. APMSO worker Another youngster died in Gulshan-i-Iqbal the same day when he came under an armed attack while collecting hides of sacrificial animals.

Thirty-year-old Iftikhar Ahmed, associated with the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organization — the students’ wing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — in Block 17 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

“In fact, the firing incident occurred inside a residential building named Ashraf Square,” said an official at the Aziz Bhatti police station. “Iftikhar along with his aides was engaged in a dispute over a hide, which first led to a brief brawl with one of the apartment residents and finally firing.”

The bullets hit and killed Iftikhar on the spot and left his two aides Wasim and Nasim wounded, who were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. The police later registered an FIR (694/2010) under Sections 302 and 34 of the PPC against Asif alias Ladda, Waqar and Usman, but made no arrest saying the suspects had escaped.

Parts of both Lyari and Gulshan-i-Iqbal remained tense as armed men were seen prowling the roads, creating a sense of fear of more untoward incidents as fallout of the three killings.

Residents said despite repeated requests, they had not yet seen any movement of the police and the Rangers.

Later, an MQM statement condemned the killing of the APMSO worker and demanded the arrest of the people behind the killing. “It seemed an attempt to sabotage the peaceful campaign on Eid days and mar the city’s peace,” it added.