NAUSHERO FEROZE: A brother of former Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) chief Basheer Khan Qureshi and an associate were killed under mysterious circumstances in Sindh's Naushero Feroze district following which a strike was observed in several areas on province, DawnNews reported.

Maqsood Ahmed Qureshi was travelling in a vehicle with an associate near Bhirya road in Bhirya area of Naushero Feroze when it mysteriously caught fire.

Both the occupants of the car succumbed to their burns wounds suffered in the incident.

Police sources said that the bodies were shifted to Bhirya City Hospital exact details of the deaths would be known after a postmortem was carried out.

A large number of JSQM supporters reached the hospital following which the atmosphere in the locality turned tense.

Moreover, a partial strike was observed in Nausherao Feroze, Khairpur, Larakana, Kandhkot, Jaccobabad, Jamshoro and other areas of the province as shopkeepers, markets and businesses shut down in protest.

Enraged party activists also staged protests on the National Highway near Karachi blocking the flow of traffic on the main highway.

The demonstrators also reportedly engaged in aerial firing in the affected areas.

Former JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi passed in Sakrand, Nawabshah in April 2012. The cause was his death was reported to be cardiac arrest but his party had rejected cardiac arrest as the cause of their chief’s demise, demanding a thorough investigation into his mysterious death.

Some sources had also claimed that the nationalist leader was poisoned to death.

Maqsood Qureshi, had later gotten a second FIR regarding his brother's death registered through a plea filed in a local court.