KARACHI: Rangers patrolled Karachi's Azizabad neighbourhood, near Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters, on Sunday.

The Rangers entered Azizabad by way of Buturab Imambargah and moved on to Jinnah Ground. The patrol concluded at Mor Park.

Earlier, reports had said that the Rangers personnel conducted a 15-minute-long search operation at an MQM administration office in between the patrol.

An MQM spokesperson however denied that a raid took place at a party office. He added that the Rangers patrolled the area and left, without speaking to any party members.

The latest development comes ahead of a bitterly contested by-poll in NA 246 constituency of Karachi, which is also considered an MQM bastion.

The polls are expected to be a three-way contest between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Imran Ismail, MQM's Kanwar Naveed Jamil and Jamaat-i-Islami's (JI) Rashid Naseem.

A few days ago the Sindh election commissioner had decided to deploy Rangers personnel at polling stations on April 23 (polling day) amid fear of 'violence' considering the tense situation which was prevailing in Azizabad between the PTI and the MQM.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Rangers had entered Nine Zero. The error is regretted.