KARACHI, April 11: The vice chairman of the Afaq Ahmed-led faction of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi — said to be a close aide of the jailed party chairman — along with two party activists was killed in an armed attack on their car on Shaheed-i-Millat Road that also left a passer-by dead, police and party sources said on Monday.

A lone survivor of the ambush on one of the city's busiest roads linking residential and commercial areas was under treatment at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the officials said.The four men were attacked on their way back from the central prison, where they had met MQM-H chairman Afaq Ahmed, the party sources said.

Eyewitnesses were quoted as saying that four youngsters riding two motorbikes pulled up near the car, bearing registration number APS-253, which was waiting at the Shaheed-i-Millat Road-Tariq Road intersection for the traffic lights to turn green.

“The four youngsters, clad in jeans and shirts, stopped on both sides of the car near the traffic lights,” said SSP Amir Farooqi of Jamshed Town while quoting witness accounts. “Two of them got off the motorbikes, pulled out pistols and fired multiple shots from both sides of the car that left two of the men in the car dead and their two companions wounded. The intense firing also killed a woman on the footpath along the main road.”

The gunshots alarmed some policemen at a nearby picket and they fired shots into the air, he said, justifying the police action that they did it because there was traffic on the road and they could not immediately spot the exact location of the attackers.

“The retaliation from the police forced the attackers to run away, abandoning their motorbikes on the spot. The bikes have been seized by the police and their records are being checked. We have also collected several spent bullet casings which showed that 9mm and 30-bore pistols were used in the attack,” said SSP Farooqi.

The three bodies and the two wounded victims were shifted to the JPMC, where Akhtar Hussain, the party's vice chairman, was identified as among the deceased persons.

The other two who lost their lives were his aide, Abdul Karim, and the passer-by, Shams-un-Nisa.

The woman was a resident of Chakra Goth in Korangi and used to work as a maidservant in residential societies along Shaheed-i-Millat Road.

One of the wounded victims, 28-year-old Shoaib Ahmed who was driving the car, also died later during treatment.

After his death at the hospital in the late hours, 32-year-old Mohammad Salman was the lone survivor who was travelling in the car, sitting beside the driver.

Doctors at the medico-legal section of the JPMC said that the three men who died had suffered more than a dozen bullets mainly in the face, chest, abdomen and head, while the woman had suffered a single gunshot wound in the head.

The attack on Akhtar Hussain and his aides came as a grim reminder of the deadly assault on the attorney for the party's chairman and a few MQM-H workers on the very same road shortly after they had met Afaq Ahmad in the central jail last year.

Advocate Sohail Anjum was among the four people in a taxi that was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green at the Shaheed-i-Millat-Tipu Sultan Road intersection on March 17, 2010, when it came under an armed attack.

Seen as the 'party backbone' after MQM-H chairman Afaq Ahmed was arrested in 2004 and later sent to jail, Akhtar Hussain was settled in Sherpao Colony of Landhi Town. The 46-year-old party leader was unmarried and originally a resident of Shah Faisal Colony. “Due to a persistent threat to his life, he moved to Sherpao Colony with other party workers several years ago,” said the MQM-H spokesman. “Abdul Karim was also living in Sherpao Colony these days with the family after leaving his home in Orangi Town a few years ago. He was 37 years old and had four children.”

The party's spokesman condemned the assassinations and blamed the rivals for the killings of several workers of the MQM-H. He also demanded that the authorities “respect their right to nominate the suspects” when the police formally registered an FIR.

Meanwhile, the police authorities set up a special investigation team to probe the incident, appointing an SP-rank officer for the task.

“The members of the SIU (special investigation unit), a DSP and other senior officials will be part of the team,” said DIG South Iqbal Mehmood.

He said: “Unfortunately, there were no CCTV cameras installed around the crime-scene but we have eyewitnesses, including the wounded person, whose accounts may help in setting the course of investigation.”