KARACHI: Eight people, including a young couple, were shot dead in different city areas on Saturday, police said.

They said that a young man and a woman were gunned down in a Liaquatabad locality on Saturday.

Armed men on a motorbike fired at the couple near Baloch Masjid in the Teen Hatti area and sped away, the police said, adding that the man and the woman sustained serious bullet wounds and died before they could be moved to hospital.

The bodies were later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

“The victim man was identified by one of his relatives as 22-year-old Shahid Zaman,” said an official at the Supermarket police station. “The woman has not yet been identified.”

He said that a relative of the victim told the police that he had left home on Thursday and since then he had been missing. He was a resident of Musharraf Colony near Hawkesbay.

The police suspected a personal motive for the double murder.

Two killed in old city area Two men, said to be associated with one of the criminal gangs operating in Lyari, were shot dead in an attack in the Ghas Mandi area on Saturday, police said.

They said that armed men opened fire on Asim alias Mushki and Muhammad Arsalan in Dharamsee Wara near Ghas Mandi. They sustained two bullet wounds each and died on the spot, they added.

“The victims were residents of the Usmanabad area in Lyari,” said Garden SHO Inspector Saleem Naz. “The deceased were associated with the Haris Niazi group, a criminal gang operating in Lyari. Some five cases were registered against them in different police stations of Lyari.”

The police handed over the bodies to the families after medico-legal formalities at the Civil Hospital Karachi.

The police said that two pistols were seized from them.

Investigators said that the incident seemed the result of a row between two criminal gangs.

‘Peddler’ killed in Korangi A suspected drug peddler was killed in a Korangi area on Saturday.

Police said that gunmen riding a motorbike fired shots at 25-year-old Fazal-ur-Rahman while he was sitting at his roadside paan cabin near Matkay Wali Pulia in Korangi No 1 ½.

“The victim had been arrested twice for selling drugs through his paan shop,” said an official at the Zaman Town police station. “Initial findings suggest that he had a fight with one of the drug suppliers in the area only two days ago and we suspect the same reason behind his murder.”

He was a resident of Korangi Sector 48-D, the police said.

Man shot dead in Orangi Town Another suspected criminal was gunned down in Orangi Town on Saturday, police said.

An official at the Pakistan Bazaar police station said the 32-year-old Mehtab Mobin was shot dead by armed men riding a motorbike near Ghousia Chowk in Orangi Town’s Sector 16.

“He was a resident of the same area…he was nominated in different cases registered at the Pakistan Bazaar and Mominabad police stations,” he added.The police said that it appeared that the killing was linked with his criminal activities,” he added.

Killing in Rizvia Society A civil works contractor was killed in the Rizvia Society area on Saturday.

Police said that assailants riding a motorbike fired shots at 37-year-old Muttaqi Hussain near the Jafria Imambargah and rode away.

“The victim was a contractor by profession and resident of the same area,” said an official at the Rizvia police station. “We have enough evidence to believe that the motive for the murder was some personal issues.”

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shahed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Youth found shot dead A young man was found shot dead near Gujjar Nullah in Nazimabad on Saturday.

Police said that the body of the youth was found in a garbage dump. The victim was identified as Tahir Khan, who was a resident of Hasan Colony in Gulbahar.

They said that he was father of four and was associated with the hosiery business.

The police said that he left home on Friday night after receiving someone’s call on his mobile phone, but did not return.