KARACHI, Aug 22: With 12 more killings, fear and terror ruled the city on a sixth consecutive day on Monday as even the presence of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the city also could not help stem the sliding law and order situation.

While the PM was busy presiding over meetings with the provincial government and security authorities to discuss ways to restore peace to the city, armed riders stormed into an office of the Karachi Water Sewerage Board in the Garden area and shot dead four employees.

The episode lasted hardly for five minutes sparked panic and fear in the area.

“It was first half of the day when four armed men on two motorbikes were seen entering the KWSB office situated on Nishtar Road near Masjid-i-Aulia,” said an official at the Garden police station. “A few seconds later, they fired at people busy in their regular work. It appeared that the assailants fired indiscriminately and the people who were close to the attackers were targeted.”

He said that two executive engineers— Anwarullah and Chaudhary Altaf Hussain — died on the spot. A valve man, Arif Usman, and a clerk, Abdul Qadir, also met the same fate. The firing also left another employee wounded and he was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment.

“It’s sheer terrorism and nothing more or less than that,” said Garden SHO Zahid Hussain Soomro. “It would be a little too early to arrive at any conclusion about the motive and the people behind the killings but it does not seem any different from the ongoing wave of violence in the city.”

The bullet-riddled body of a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, stuffed in a gunny bag, was found on the rooftop of an apartment building in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Monday, police said.

They said 20-year-old Mehtab Khan was found shot dead on the rooftop of Junaid Plaza in Gulshan’s block 6.

“The victim was an MQM activist and also a close relative of former provincial minister Mohammad Hussain,” said Inspector Shabbir Hussain, the SHO of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station. “Surprisingly, he lived in Dawood Terrace, neighboring Junaid Plaza where his body was found. He had been missing since Sunday evening.”

A young man was shot dead in a Korangi locality on Monday, police said.

They said the victim, Naveed Abbas, was hit by a single bullet in Korangi’s Zia Colony in the street also housing the Masoom Shuhada Imambargah.

“He was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he died during treatment,” said an official at the Korangi police station.

The bullet-riddled body of a young man was found in the Lyari river, police said.

They said the victim, identified as 30-year-old Abdul Kareem, was hit by a single bullet in the head. They body was dumped in the river near the Nafeesabad area within the remit of the PIB Colony police station.

The body of a man, stuffed in a gunny bag, was found in a Landhi area on Monday.

An official at the Sharafi Goth police station said the body was found at an isolated place called Ismail Goth in the outskirts of Landhi Town. The identity of the victim could not be established till late in the night, he added.

Three men were shot dead in separate incidents near Jahangir Road on Monday, police said.

They said that in the first such incident, assailants shot dead a young man in an armed attack and his killing sparked violent protests in the area.

They said 29-year-old Junaid Shakirullah was hit by a bullet in the head and died on the spot. Within an hour of this incident, armed men emerged again in the same area and killed two more persons.

“Two men on a motorbike resorted to indiscriminate firing near a filling station that killed two men. One of them appears to be in his 50s while the other is in his early-20s,” said an official at the Jamshed Quarters police station, adding that the identity of the two victims could not be ascertained.

Police and rescue workers found two badly wounded youngsters near the Zoological Garden on Monday and shifted them to the civil hospital, where one of them died from wounds.

The police said the victims were tortured and hit by bullets.

“We have reports that they were thrown out of a moving vehicle in a wounded condition near the zoo. They were shifted to hospital where one of them died. The second one is still under treatment with dim chances of survival,” said Inspector Ghulam Nabi Bhago, the SHO of the Solider Bazaar police station.