KARACHI: Two young brothers were shot dead in a suspected sectarian attack in Nazimabad on Monday evening, Gulbahar police said.

They added that Mohammed Bashir, 35, and Mohammed Nazir, 28, were riding a motorcycle when armed motorcyclists attacked them close to the ‘Matric Board Office’ near a fuel station. The wounded brothers were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced Bashir as dead on arrival while Nazir died soon after arrival, said additional police surgeon Dr Abdul Haq.

The murder of the brothers appeared to be an outcome of sectarianism, said Gulbahar DSP Aijazuddin.

Bashir was a teacher at the Iranian Cultural Centre, where his brother was an employee, said a spokesperson for the Majlis-i- Wahdat-i-Muslimeen.

Condemning the ‘targeted killing’ of the brothers, the MWM official said the bodies were being sent to their native place in Gilgit after funeral prayers here.

The city police chief ‘suspended/reverted’ the Gulbahar SHO for his failure to curb ‘sectarian killings’ in the area, said a police spokesperson.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2014