KARACHI, March 30: A young Pakistan People’s Party activist, who was also a security guard of Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani, was gunned down near his home in Azizabad on Wednesday, police and party sources said. Thirty-five-year-old Mohammad Imran alias Jangi was killed as he came out of a mosque in Muhammadi Colony, Azizabad No 8, after offering Asr prayers, the police said.

“There is a mosque named Almas Masjid in the area where he used to offer prayers,” said SP Asim Khan of Gulberg Town. He quoted witnesses as saying that two motorcyclists emerged there when Imran came out of the mosque. “One of them got off the two-wheeler, fired at him and escaped with his accomplice.”

The victim received two bullets each in the head and neck and died on the spot, the SP said, adding that the body was later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Investigators at the Azizabad police station said they collected three bullet casings of a 9mm pistol, a commonly used weapon in targeted killings across the city, from the crime-scene.

Imran’s killing came as a rude shock to PPP leaders who said he was targeted only for his political association.

“Before being assigned Agha Siraj Durrani’s security, he was on the same task for the slain PPP leader Khalid Shehanshah,” said Sohail Abidi, a senior leader of the PPP Karachi division.

Mr Shehanshah, the chief security officer of Asif Ali Zardari before he became president, was killed in the Clifton area in July 2008. He was also said to be a key eyewitness to former prime minister Benzair Bhutto’s assassination in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on December 27, 2007.

Mr Abidi suspected that the ‘same elements’ were behind Imran’s murder who he said had targeted four other activists of the ruling party in March 2011.

“He was an active and loyal senior member of the party. His killing is part of a plan to scare other PPP workers in the city to keep them away from political activities in the city,” he added.

Ex-councillor shot dead Earlier during the day, a 50-year-old former councillor of the city government was gunned down in Gulbahar, the police said.

They added that two armed motorcyclists, both wearing helmets, entered a street of Gulbahar No 1 near Liaquat Chowk where Riaz Ahmed Alvi resided. “Alvi was standing outside his home when they opened fire on him and sped away,” said an official at the Rizvia police station.

He said the victim sustained multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot.

He added that the motive and the people behind his killing were not known yet.

The official said, “He had contested the 2001 elections of the local bodies from the area as an independent candidate and won.

The victim was a contractor and father of three.”