KARACHI, Dec 29: A Rangers sepoy was shot dead and a sub-inspector wounded when gunmen attacked them in the old city area on Thursday evening, police said.

Rangers described the shooting as an apparent incident of street crime.

SSP-South Naeem Shaikh said both Rangers personnel were in civilian dress and had gone out to a sports shop on M. A. Jinnah Road. After shopping, they rode towards the Lighthouse and turned towards Gari Khata, where they were fired at.

A spokesman for the Sindh Rangers, Maj Sibtain Rizvi, said Sub-Inspector Siddique and Sepoy Madad Ali had gone to a shop near the Lighthouse on a motorcycle in civil dress to purchase cricket-related goods.

When they were on their way back from shopping, three gunmen on two motorcycles tried to snatch their motorcycle.

On resistance, the suspects opened fire on them.

Sepoy Madad Ali died on the spot and SI Siddique was wounded. They were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi.

Police said the suspects took away the motorcycle of the Rangers personnel, but left behind their two-wheeler, which was taken into custody by police.

Another senior officer declined to share the details of the abandoned motorcycle, saying it could hamper the investigation.

There was confusion about the number of the suspects involved in the incident.

“Eyewitnesses are giving varying accounts of the incident. However, it is clear that the suspects who fired gunshots were two on a motorcycle,” the officer said.

Eyewitness accounts also suggested that the two suspects were being backed up by at least one or two more, the officer added.

“We've got some important clues from the crime-scene which could prove helpful in the investigation of the case,” SSP Naeem Shaikh said.

On Dec 20, a policeman was shot dead in City Railway Colony while resisting armed bandits.

Police said a 42-year-old assistant sub-inspector, Syed Irshad Hussain, was standing near his home when two armed men riding a motorcycle emerged there and fired at him.

He was shot in the abdomen and was rushed to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where he died during treatment.

The Mithadar police station SHO said that apparently the victim policeman had resisted a robbery attempt and the bandits opened fire on him and fled.

The victim was posted at the City Courts police station and hailed from Sukkur. He was father six children.

Guard found dead

A private security guard was found dead on the rooftop of a bungalow in Block D of North Nazimabad within the remit of Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police station on Thursday.

A man, Laeeq Ahmed, informed the police that his security guard, 28-year-old Wajid Nawaz, was lying dead on the rooftop of his bungalow. When the police arrived at the scene they found the dead guard sitting in the chair with a bullet hole in the head. The police said the house-owner informed them that they had heard a gunshot sound early in the morning but ignored it. He said the inmates came to know about the murder when they went upstairs to give him breakfast.

Police said the guard, who hailed from Larkana, was hired for the bungalow some four months back.

The body was sent to his hometown after legal formalities were carried out at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

A case (FIR No.581/2011) under Section 302 (premeditated murder) was registered on the complaint of Laeeq Ahmed.