KARACHI, Aug 31: A trustee of an Imambargah was gunned down in a targeted attack apparently on sectarian grounds in an Orangi Town locality on Saturday, police said.

They said that armed men targeted 60-year-old Bostan Ali in Orangi Town’s Sector 11 ½ when he was going home on a motorbike. He was hit by three bullets and died on the spot.

“Two men on a motorbike intercepted him near a petrol pump in Sector 11 ½ when he was returning home from a nearby market,” said Inspector Amjad Kyani, the SHO of the Iqbal Market police station. “The victim was a trustee of the Salman Farsi Imambargah in Toori Bangash Colony and lived in the same area. His killing appears to be part of the ongoing wave of sectarian killings.”

A spokesman for the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen condemned the killing and called it a failure of the government and the security administration.

He said that funeral prayers for the victim were held at Rizvia Society and he was laid to rest at the Wadi-i-Hussain graveyard.

Missing teenager found murdered, suspect held

A teenage boy, who had gone missing three days ago, was found dead in the Malir river on Saturday, police said.

They said that 14-year-old Ahsan Bilal, a resident of P&T Colony, went missing on the evening of Aug 28. Later, some witnesses said that the boy was last seen with his neighbour Muhammad Hafeez.

Gizri SHO Inspector Raja Tanveer said that the police had registered a case under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistan Penal Code and had taken Muhammad Hafeez into custody on Friday night for questioning.

“During grilling, he disclosed that he had kidnapped the boy, sexually assaulted him and then killed him. A team of investigators recovered the body from the Malir river near the Jam Sadiq bridge on the basis of the information provided by him.”

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

The area SHO said that other relevant sections of the PPC would be incorporated in the FIR after the post-mortem report.

“The held suspect has been nominated in the FIR. He and the victim boy were very close and they had very cordial relations for the past several years. The suspect also informed the police that his two friends helped him in dumping the body in the Malir river,” he said, adding that the police were making efforts for their arrest.