KARACHI, May 15: At least seven people, including three Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers, were shot dead in different parts of the city on Tuesday.

A former councillor of the MQM Haq Parast group was gunned down near his home in PECHS Block 2, said a duty officer at the Ferozabad police station.

Gulshan SP Salam Shaikh said Anwar Alam aka Babu Bhai, 38, was at a playground near his home in the evening when three men riding a motorbike arrived there and opened fire on him and escaped.

He said the police collected several spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.

The police said the victim sustained two gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he died during treatment. A large number of party workers reached the JPMC.

Following the incident, unidentified men fired into the air, forcing closure of shops on Tariq Road and Bahadurabad and spreading tension in the areas of Khalid Bin Waleed Road and Tipu Sultan Road.

He was an active worker of the MQM Unit 63 and a former UC-7 councillor, the SP said, adding that it was a targeted killing.Earlier, two other MQM workers, both residents of Gulshan-i-Maymar Sector 51-1, were found shot dead at different places along the Superhighway on Tuesday, police said.

They added that gunny bags containing the bodies of Mohammad Azhar Ali, 33, and Kamran Ali, 22, were found in the Memon graveyard and Ganna Mandi within the remit of the Malir Cantt and Sohrab Goth police stations, respectively.

The bodies each bearing torture marks and four gunshot wounds were shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.

Sohrab Goth SDPO Iftikhar Lodhi told Dawn that the victims were kidnapped in the Maymar area on Monday.

He said both were active workers of the MQM’s Ahsanabad unit of the Gulshan-i-Maymar sector. The police said Azhar was a Pakistan Steel Mills employee and Kamran worked at a private company.

Residents told the police that before being kidnapped, the victims had fought with someone.

After the victims’ identification, a number of MQM activists reached the JPMC and raised slogans against the government.

Following the autopsy, the police handed over the bodies to the victims’ heirs.

When the two bodies were brought to Ahsanabad, traders pulled down shutters.

Targeted killing

A young man was targeted apparently in a sectarian attack near the Inquiry Office in Nazimabad, police said.

Syed Mehdi Raza, 32, was going to offer prayers at Jamia Imamia Imambargah in Nazimabad No 2, when two armed men riding a motorbike sprayed him with bullets and sped away, said a duty officer at the Nazimabad police station.

He added that the victim sustained four gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he died during treatment.

Nazimabad SHO Iqbal Sheikh said the victim was a resident of Sector 5C-1, New Karachi, and worked at a printing press in Nazimabad.

The victim’s elder brother, Riaz Raza, was a trusty of Imambargah Aal-i-Muhammad in New Karachi, the police said.

Police collected five spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.

The police described the murder as a sectarian killing, but did not rule out political grounds as a possible motive for the murder.

They said the victim was an MQM sympathiser also.

Mehdi was the youngest among his 10 siblings. His funeral prayers were offered at Imambargah Aal-i-Muhammad after Maghrib.

Tension gripped parts of New Karachi with closure of shops during the funeral prayers.

Seeking the arrest of culprits involved in sectarian killings, Karachi Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen president Mohammad Mehdi said 36 Shia people had been killed in the city over the past five months. Most of them were targeted in the Nazimabad area, he added.

Bodies found

In the Ilyas Goth area of Korangi, two young men were found shot dead, said an official at the Ibrahim Hyderi police station.

He said both bodies, spotted near the navy building in Korangi Sector 51-B, remained unidentified.

They looked like Afghans, said SHO Naik Mohammad Jakhrani, adding that the victims sustained two gunshot wounds to their heads.

The bodies were shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination and later to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.

In the Bakra Piri area of Malir, the body of an unidentified man was found, said a duty officer at the Malir City police station.

The victim had sustained a bullet wound to the head, said ASI Kazim, adding that he appeared to be Siraiki.

The duty officer said police did not find any clue to his identity. The body was shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination, and later to the Edhi morgue.

College registrar, son wounded

The registrar of the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology and his son were wounded in a gun attack within the remit of the New Town police station.

Ghulam Bashir and his son, Farooq Ahmed, were targeted near the National Stadium by eight armed men riding six motorbikes.

The wounded father and son were shifted to a nearby private hospital, where doctors described their condition as stable.

An FIR (260/2012) was later lodged against unidentified men on a complaint of Mr Bashir.