KARACHI: An 18-year-old student and a police guard were killed while another teenage boy and a private security guard were wounded in an exchange of fire in the Defence Housing Authority in the early hours of Thursday.

The deadly exchange of fire took place at the bungalow of Suleman Lashari, an A-level student, in DHA Phase V on Khayaban-i-Shamsheer following a quarrel between the teenagers over some petty issue, police said.

The incident came as a grim reminder of the murder of a student, Shahzeb Khan, in 2012 and a cinema guard in 2013 in the DHA.

According to Clifton SP Abadit Nisar, Salman Abro, 18, along with five police guards of his father arrived at the bungalow of Suleman Lashari at around 2am where the exchange of fire took place. As a result, Lashari was shot dead, he said.

One of the victim’s guards, Ghulam Ali, returned fire, leaving Salman Abro and the police guard, Zaheer Ahmed, wounded. The policeman later died while the officer’s son was admitted to a private hospital in a critical condition. Ghulam Ali was also hurt in the exchange of fire.

DIG South Barrister Abdul Khalique Sheikh said the incident followed a quarrel between Suleman Lashari and Salman Abro but he was not sure as to what had triggered it.

SP South (Investigation-I) Faiz Ullah Korejo said the scuffle had recently broken out between the teenagers. He said that Salman Abro might have gone there for a ‘compromise’ or a ‘patch-up’ where arguments might have flared up.

However, he added, the exact motive for the murder could be determined after recording the statement of the youth. Mr Korejo believed that both the deceased and the wounded attacker were familiar with each other. But Darakhshan SHO Zawar Hussain told Dawn that the family of the deceased denied this. He said the young Abro sustained bullet wounds in the abdomen and was admitted to the ICU of a hospital in Clifton where he was not in a position to record his statement.

The brother of the deceased, Zeeshan Mustafa, in his complaint lodged at the Darakshan police station said a quarrel between his brother and Salman Abro had taken place a few days ago at the Seaview over ‘a car race’, said the SHO.

The police registered an FIR (235/2014) on the complaint of Zeeshan against Salman Abro and “four unidentified persons” under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The police officer said that the four police guards were taken into custody and their weapons seized following the incident. Besides, a Vigo vehicle had also been seized.

The families of the teenagers were reluctant to talk about the incident when approached by Dawn.

However, Zeeshan informed Dawn that his brother, Suleman Lashari, was a student of St Michael’s school. He was supposed to take the Cambridge examination of English A-level on Thursday morning, a few hours before his murder.

Yusuf Abro who is also a police officer posted in Nawabshah and uncle of the wounded Salman Abro said that only his father, Sarwar Abro, could speak to the media when he would come to the city.

This was third such incident in Defence when someone was killed in a gun fight between teenagers over a petty issue. On Dec 28, 2013, the step-son of a former governor of Balochistan was arrested over the charges of killing of the guard of a cinema. On Dec 24, 2012, Shahzeb Khan was killed by a teenage boy in Defence.