KARACHI, May 9: A gun attack on the caravan of a central leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and joint candidate of the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz, Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, in Korangi left his four guards wounded and a passerby dead, police and party sources said.

Maulana Farooqi, a joint candidate of MDM (an alliance of six religious parties) for PS-128, remained unhurt, the police added.

He was on his way to Dawood Chowrangi in Landhi after addressing several corner meetings in Korangi when gunmen riding motorcycles and cars opened fire on his convoy on the main Korangi Road near Darul Uloom, said SHO Javed Brohi of the Awami Colony police station.

In the firing, two policemen, Adeel and Abbas, and his two private guards, Abdullah and Abdul Rehman, were wounded. The wounded were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Liaquat National Hospital for treatment. They were stated to be out of danger.

Maulana Akbar Saeed Farooqi, a spokesperson for the ASWJ, said it was the fourth attack on Aurangzeb Farooqi’s life and yet the authorities had failed to provide security to him. He said the elements involved in the killing of religious scholars were behind that attack also.

The police officer said ‘several gunmen’ attacked the Maulana’s caravan. Tension prevailed in the area following the attack.

Meanwhile, Landhi DSP Ahmed Beg told Dawn that a passer-by, Ismail, 30, was killed in the crossfire between the guards of Maulana Farooqi and the attackers. He was initially taken to a government hospital in Korangi and later his body was shifted to the JPMC.

In a related development, SP Korangi Irfan Mukhtar Bhutto said a hand grenade and four Kalashnikovs were seized from a car with a government number plate (GP-4827) parked at the Indus Hospital. He suspected that the attackers might have left the vehicle there.

The SHO of the Awami Colony police station said the car bearing the government number plate recovered from the parking area of the hospital in Korangi contained blood stains and bullet marks, indicating that the attackers might have been wounded in the firing.