KARACHI: The four men, including a teenage boy, found shot dead on Monday in the deserted area of Mochko were identified on Tuesday and police investigators believed personal enmity as the motive for their killing.

The four victims were identified as Khurram Sabzal, 27, Noor Khan, 48, Shado Abdullah, 27, and Anwar Mohammed, 15, said City SSP Sheraz Nazeer.

He added that the deceased were identified by a brother of Khurram Sabzal, Mohammed Jameel, as relatives and residents of Mubarak Village.

The incident was a result of personal enmity, the officer said.

The SSP quoted Mr Jameel as telling the police that his brother had murdered someone in Mubarak Village recently over a “land dispute” and had been nominated in the murder case. He said Khurram along with other victims on Sunday had gone to attend a wedding ceremony in Raees Goth in the Mochko area where they were kidnapped and later found shot dead.

Residents of Mubarak Village told Dawn that Khurram was, in fact, a resident of Ali Mohammed Mohallah in Kalri and said to have links with gangsters in Lyari. He had reportedly taken ‘shelter’ in Mubarak Village and around six months ago a village elder and former councillor of the Pakistan Peoples Party and local leader of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mama Haroon, had resisted the ‘arrival’ of suspected gangsters in the village. According to the residents, Mr Haroon believed that suspected gangsters might ‘spoil’ young residents of the village.

Mr Haroon was later killed allegedly by Khurram and his accomplices, they added. Two suspects, identified as Baloch Khan and Dada, were arrested while Khurram was an absconder in the murder case. However, the SSP said the police had no record to link Khurram with gangsters in Lyari.

Besides, he said, the police found no criminal record of the other deceased who were stated to be relatives of Khurram.

A resident told Dawn that Noor Khan was a fisherman and Shado a bus conductor.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2014