KARACHI: A man and his young nephew were gunned down in an Orangi Town area apparently in an attack on sectarian grounds on Tuesday, officials said.

They added that Sabir Hussain, 45, and his nephew, Ghulam Hyder, 27, were sitting at their shop, ‘Jawad Optical’, near Husanian Imambargah in Orangi Town’s Sector-10. A man entered their shop posing as a customer. All of a sudden his two accomplices also entered, fired shots at both the relatives and escaped on a parked motorcycle.

They sustained critical bullet wounds and were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors declared them dead.

The incident occurred within the remit of jurisdiction of the Mominabad police station.

“It appears to be an act of sectarian killing,” said SSP-West Irfan Baloch.

He added that the victims had no known affiliation with any religious group.

Man found shot dead

Also in the Mominabad area, a young man was found shot dead on Tuesday.

The police said the bullet-riddled body of a man was found at a place near the Kati Pahari area. The man appears to be in his early-30s.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Till late at night, his identity was not ascertained.

Man, three-year-old son shot dead in Lyari

A man and his three-year-old son were shot dead in an attack police believed to have carried out by Lyari gangsters on Tuesday.

They said that 40-year-old Zubair Karim was on his way to drop his his three-year-old son, Daud, to school when assailants fired at them near Gharib Shah Mazar. They sustained critical bullet wounds and were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where doctors declared them dead.

The slain man was a resident of gangs-infested Afshani Gali. He was a peaceful citizen and might have been targeted by gangsters over suspicion of being an ‘informer’, said SSP-City Sheeraz Nazeer.

He added that another motive for the killing might be some personal enmity.

However, the family did not nominate anyone in the FIR lodged at the Kalakot police station.

IJT activist killed in Gulshan

An activist of the Islami Jamiat Talba was shot dead on main University Road, police said on Tuesday.

The Gulshan-i-Iqbal police said that 19-year-old Adeel Atif was killed by armed muggers as he offered resistance. However, the Jamaat-i-Islami termed it an incident of targeted killing.

The police said that the teenager was travelling along with his mother in a car when robbers intercepted them on main University Road near Safari Park late on Monday night.

As the teenager put up resistance, the robbers fired at him and fled.

He sustained critical bullet wounds in the chest and died.

However, SSP-East Pir Mohammad Shah said that police were investigating the case from different angles.

He said that the incident occurred at the curve of an elevated U-turn on University Road, where incidents of armed robbery were uncommon.

Quoting the statement of a witness, the SSP said that the teenager’s car hit some motorcyclists who fell on the road. Later, the bikers and the teenager were seen having an argument after which they fired shots at him and fled.

The JI disputed the police claim that the teenager was killed by bandits and said that he was killed in a targeted attack.

City chief of the JI Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said that the victim was a worker of the IJT, the student wing of the JI, and a grandson of former Karachi JI chief Hakeem Sadiq Hussain.

He demanded immediate arrest of the the victim’s killer.

Robbers kill young man ‘upon resistance’

A 22-year-old Yasir Hanif was sitting on the pavement of the Talib-ul-Mola park near Islam Chowk in Orangi when muggers tried to snatch his mobile phone.

The youth offered resistance and the muggers opened fire and rode away. He sustained serious bullet wounds and was moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Shopkeeper shot dead in Saudabad

A shopkeeper was shot dead in Saudabad on Tuesday evening, according to police.

They added that Naseem Qudoos, 40, was sitting at his shop in Liaquat Market when armed pillion-riders emerged there, fired a single shot at him and rode away. He sustained critical bullet wounds and was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

The motive for the killing could not be ascertained immediately.

Published in Dawn, September 10th , 2014