KARACHI, March 19: Four people, including the meat sellers' body chief, were gunned down and more than half-a-dozen others wounded in armed attacks in which assailants used guns and a grenade in strife-hit city localities on Saturday, police and residents said.

With the fresh killings, violence and fear returned to the Lyari area, where tension was already running high between different ethnic communities.

In the first incident, armed men targeted two brothers near the Dhobi Ghat area within the remit of the Kalakot police station.

The police said that the victim brothers — 45-year-old Saleem Qureshi and 48-year-old Naeem Qureshi — were attacked when they were returning home in Lyari's Khajji Lane in their car.

The younger Qureshi was the president of the Meat Merchant Welfare Association (MMWA), they added.

“Saleem was driving the car and as he slowed down the vehicle near a speed breaker, armed motorcyclists emerged there and one of them fired multiple shots,” said Kalakot SHO Inspector Babar Hameed. “The assailant continued firing from the front and then moved to the left to target the other victim before running away with his aide.”

The firing also left a passer-by wounded and he was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment, he said, adding that both brothers died on the spot.

He said the victims were also associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and one of them had been a unit in charge of the party's organisational structure in his residential area.

“They were residents of the same area and associated with some leather business,” said the area SHO.

He said some nine spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol were found from the crime-scene.

Jehangir Qureshi, the secretary of the MMWA, condemned the double murder and said that the victim was under threat.

“Being the chief of the association he had conveyed his concerns to the authorities concerned”.

The brutal killings took place a few hours after a real estate office of a brother of an area leader of the Pakistan People's Party, Habib Jan, was attacked with a hand grenade. Mr Jan considered it an attempt on his life since he was due to visit the office.

“The real estate office of Mujahid Jan is situated on Ali Muhammad Alvi Road in Ranchhore Line neighbouring Lyari,” said SP Qamar Raza Jaskani, the City Town SP. “Two bike riders stopped outside and one of them entered the office, shook hands with the people there and returned in a flash after dropping a hand grenade there.”

The attacker locked the door from outside before running away with his aide on the motorbike, the SP said, adding that the hand grenade exploded inside the office and left five people, including Habib Jan's brother, injured.

“All the injured — Pir Muhammad, Umar Rafiq, Arif, Salman and Mujahid Jan — were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment. As examined by the bomb disposal unit, the hand grenade was a Russian made called RGS-65.”

He said that the condition of the injured was said to be stable. Habib Jan was not present in the office at the time of the attack though he was scheduled to arrive there, the SP said.

Mr Jan said that the attack was in fact an attempt to wreck peace in Lyari. “Some elements don't want peace here and after failing in all their conspiracies, they devised a plan to eliminate all those who were working for peace.”

Earlier, a youngster was shot dead and two others wounded in Agra Taj Colony.

The deceased was identified as 28-year-old Yousuf, who came to see his friends in the area.

“The firing by armed men also left an activist of the MQM, Imran alias Shera, wounded. It appears that he was the actual target of the attackers,” said Kalri SHO Inspector Zahid Tanoli.

Meanwhile, a young man was killed in PIB Colony in the wee hours of Saturday.

Police said that he was said to be associated with the recently disbanded People's Amn Committee.

They said that Muhammad Zulfiqar alias Zulfi was targeted by armed motorcyclists near Meena Bazaar in PIB Colony.

“He was hit by three bullets fired from a very close range,” said an official at the PIB Colony police station. “The body was handed over to the family after medico-legal formalities at the Civil Hospital Karachi. A case (FIR 75/2011) was registered against unidentified persons under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of a family member of the victim.”