KARACHI: Three friends — two associated with the Awami National Party (ANP) and one with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) — were killed in an armed attack near Lasbella Chowk on Saturday, police said.

The police said two men on a motorbike targeted Mukhtar Rasool, Naveed Ahmed and Mohammad Sarfaraz while they were sitting at the corner of a street along the commercial area close to the Lasbella traffic intersection. One of the attackers reportedly pulled out a pistol and fired a number of shots at the victims before riding away with his aide.

“The attacker used a 9mm pistol,” said Inspector Yousuf Jamal, the SHO of the Jamshed Town police station. “Two of the victims – Naveed Ahmed and Muhammad Sarfaraz – were associated with the ANP while Mukhtar Rasool was a PTI activist. The motive behind the attack is not yet clear and we are still in the process to reach a conclusion that who was the actual target of the attack.”

Tension gripped the locality after the incident and other adjoining areas as traders pulled down shutters and vehicles started disappearing from the roads. The bodies were later moved to the Civil Hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities.

SI shot dead In Qasba Colony, a police sub-inspector was gunned down when he was riding to his workplace. The area police said that armed men on a motorbike intercepted 45-year-old Mohammad Sher Khan near Qasba Mor and fired multiple shots at him.

“He sustained nine bullet wounds in the chest and head and died on the spot,” said an official at the Pirabad police station.

“He was posted at the Iqbal Market police station and lived in Islamia Colony, near the site of the incident. He originally hailed from Sargodha and was father of five.”

The body was later handed over to the family after medico-legal formalities at the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, but the police remained clueless to reason and people behind the fatal attack.

“The exact motive is not yet clear but we have reasons to believe his professional association as key reason behind this attack. As you know that several policemen particular in this district have met with the same fate and the fresh incident seems to be part of the same trend,” added the official.

Violence in Lyari Violence broke out in parts of Lyari on Saturday after the killing of a suspected gangster in an alleged shootout with Rangers that also left his aide wounded.

Officials said that in a joint raid the Rangers personnel with area police were taking position in Singo Lane when they came under attack.

“The Rangers personnel responded and in an exchange of fire, two of the suspects sustained bullet wounds,” said a spokesman for the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh. “One of the wounded suspects, Fahim Khusha, later died while being treated at the Civil Hospital. The other one, Aqeel, was being treated at the same facility.”

Rangers officials claimed to have seized an LMG, a rocket launcher, five assault AK-47 rifles, two pistols and two bullet-proof jackets in the raid.

Minutes after the Rangers and police completed their job, violence broke out in parts of Lyari, where heavy arms, hand-grenades and rockets were freely used. Though no casualty was reported in the post-operation episode, the brazen use of heavy arms sowed fear and paralysed life in the densely-populated locality.

“It’s in fact reaction of the criminals to the Rangers action that killed their man and led to the arrest of one of them,” said SP-Lyari Najam Khan Tareen. “We have enhanced patrolling and deployed additional force in the affected pockets of the town. So far, no arrest has been made but we have controlled the situation.”