KARACHI, Nov 23: Two brothers associated with the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) were gunned down in Federal B Area on Tuesday, police and their party said.

The area police said that 32-year-old Qari Hammad and 18-year-old Shoaib were targeted outside their auto-workshop within the remit of the Gulberg police station.

Though the police remained unable to determine the motive and the people behind the double murder, a spokesman for the AWSJ said that the two brothers were targeted due to their association with the party, which was previously known as the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.

On Nov 13, a young activist of the ASWJ was killed in the Ramswami area. Akhlaq Ahmed, 29, was associated with Malir unit of the party.

“Both the brothers were sitting at their shop situated between the Tahir Villa roundabout and the Landi Kotal roundabout,” said Gulberg SHO Sub-Inspector Irfan Hyder. “Some witnesses claimed that they saw three men on a motorbike, while a few others told us about only two, who stopped outside their shop and one of them got off the bike before firing multiple shots at the two brothers.”

The brothers sustained serious bullet wounds and died on the spot, the area SHO said, adding that the attackers escaped from the crime scene safely.

“The bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the victims' family stopped doctors from performing a post-mortem examination. They took away the bodies despite resistance from the hospital management and the police,” he said.

The ASWJ leadership told Dawn that they had no doubt about it being a case of targeted killing.

“They were targeted only due to their association with the party,” said Taj Hanfi of the ASWJ.