KARACHI, Nov 4 Three activists of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) and a worker of the Sunni Tehrik were killed in separate incidents on Wednesday, police and party sources said.

Forty-year-old Abrar, a worker of the MQM-H, was shot dead by unidentified assailants near his house within the remit of the Brigade police station in the early hours of Wednesday.

“Abrar was standing with his friends near a department store when two armed men riding a motorcycle came close to them. Some witnesses said that the pillion passenger got off the motorbike and opened fire only after recognising his target,” said an official at the Brigade police station.

The police remained clueless about the motive behind the targeted killing. They said that the deceased was associated with the Afaq Ahmed faction of the MQM-H.

They said that a case (FIR 498/2009) was registered against unknown persons under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the victim's maternal uncle, Sher Muhammad Khan.

In another incident, the Landhi police found bullet-riddled bodies of two young men in Karbala Ground near the Landhi Degree College.

Landhi Town SP Sultan Haider said “There was no witness to the firing incident and no one in the area heard gunshots. So we believe that the two youngsters were killed somewhere else and their bodies were thrown in the ground in Landhi No 6.”The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where doctors said that the victims suffered two bullet wounds, each in the chest and the head.

The police said that one of the victims was identified as Rehan alias Colombo, resident of 36-B, Landhi, and an activist of the MQM-H (Afaq Ahmed faction). The other deceased remained unidentified, they added.

However, an MQM-H spokesman said that the second victim was 25-year-old Farid alias 81, a resident of Korangi, who was also a member of the party. He said that the killing of three party workers in a single day left a question mark over the performance of the city police and the provincial administration.

The police were tracing the family of the unidentified victim before lodging an FIR of the double murder case.

They said that deceased Rehan alias Colombo was not living in the area despite having family and home in the locality.

“His political association is not clear, but we have learnt that he had not been residing in his Landhi residence for sometime. The motive behind the killing of two persons could not be established,” said the SP.

In another incident, a young activist of the Sunni Tehreek was gunned down when he was standing in front of a party office in the New Karachi area, police said.

They said that 20-year-old Amir alias Kaalu, resident of Mustafa Colony in Sector 5-G of New Karachi, was shot dead by armed men riding a motorbike.

“He was standing outside the party office located behind Town Committee School in Sector 5-G, when two men riding a motorbike came close and fired at him with a 9mm pistol,” said an official at the New Karachi Industrial Area police station. “He sustained three bullets and died on the spot. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.”

An officer at the investigation section of the New Karachi Industrial Area police station said that the victim's father, Muhammad Siddiq, lodged a case (FIR 467/2009) under Sections 302 and 34 of the PPC against unknown persons.

He said that the victim's father told the police that Amir had not been living with him for the past few months. “His parents were not aware of his whereabouts and he became the ST worker just six to eight months back. Similarly, his father told us that his son had some dispute with his party colleagues over some personal issues,” said the police official.

Following the killing incident, tension gripped parts of New Karachi on Wednesday when unknown armed persons fired into the air and forced shopkeeper to close down their business.