KARACHI: A roadside vendor and a barber were shot dead in the Supermarket and Sharifabad areas of Liaquatabad in suspected sectarian attacks on Thursday, officials said.

Syed Ali Raza, 27, was selling biryani at a roadside in Liaquatabad-2 when armed motorcyclists targeted him, Supermarket SHO Rizwan Patel said. As the suspects were fleeing, they were challenged by a patrolling police mobile near Jhand Chowk in Liaquatabad. During the exchange of fire between the police and suspects, five-year-old Mohsin Ali was wounded and the suspects escaped. The wounded were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), where doctors pronounced Raza as dead. Mohsin suffered a bullet wound in the ear and his condition was out of danger, the officer added.

It was an act of sectarian killing, said SHO Patel.

A few minutes later also in Liaquatabad, a barber was gunned down in another suspected sectarian attack.

Sharifabad police said Tariq Khan, 26, was busy in his work with three or four customers in his shop in the F.C. Area in Gol Market near Hussaini Imambargah when gunmen on a motorcycle appeared there and targeted him. He was taken to the ASH, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the victim originally hailed from Punjab and they were not sure if the incident was prompted by sectarianism.

However, a spokesperson for the Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen said Tariq was Shia and it was a sectarian killing.

Meanwhile, another vendor, Zakir Ali, 30, was shot at and wounded critically at Daakkhana, Liaquatabad, by armed motorcyclists. The police said he was selling gol gappay when targeted. He was admitted in the ASH for treatment.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2014