KARACHI, March 16: Two bullets-riddled bodies were found in a street in the Garden area in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.

The police claimed that the victims were suspected gangsters associated with one of the many criminal gangs operating in strife-hit Lyari.

“The bodies were found in a street parallel to Nishter Road,” said an official at the Napier police station.

“Some sanitary workers spotted the bodies and informed their supervisors who finally reported the matter to police.”

He said the bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities, where the victims were identified as Amjad Baloch and Rashid Baloch, both in their mid-20s.

“Amjad and Rashid were the residents of the Kalakot and Chaikwara areas in Lyari Town, respectively. They had a criminal record and were nominated in several cases pertaining to possession of illegal weapons, drugs and attempted murder,” said the official, adding that initial findings suggested that both were kidnapped from their residential areas on Tuesday evening.

MQM-H man killed A young political activist was gunned down in the Gulberg area on Wednesday.

The area police said that Shamim Qureshi was travelling in a rickshaw when armed motorcyclists intercepted him near Karimabad.

“One of the riders fired at Shamim, who was hit in the face and head,” said an official at the Gulberg police station. “He died on the spot and the attackers ran away from the scene. The body was handed over to the family after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.”

He said the victim was the resident of North Karachi’s Sector 11-D.

A spokesman for the Aamir Khan-led faction of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) claimed that the victim was associated with their party’s Pak Colony unit.

Man gunned down in Mauripur A shopkeeper was gunned down in the Mauripur area in the early hours of Wednesday.

Officials said that armed men targeted 37-year-old Muhammad Rafiq near Gate No 2 of the Mauripur truck stand when he was returning home after pulling down the shutter of his store in the area.

“He was hit by two bullets and died on the spot,” said an official at the Mauripur police station. “It was not any mugging attempt as has been established in the initial investigation. The victim hailed from Dera Ismail Khan and the incident appeared to be a result of some personal enmity.”