KARACHI: A doctor was shot dead as he left his private clinic in Saeedabad on Thursday evening, the police said.

They added that when 45-year-old Dr Mohammed Ahsan Ali left his clinic near the Bismillah roundabout and was about to sit in a taxi, armed motorcyclists opened fire on him leaving him and taxi driver Rasheed critically wounded. They were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors pronounced Dr Ali dead on arrival.

The doctor sustained bullet wounds in the head while Rasheed suffered wounds in the neck.

The victim was a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar and regularly came to his clinic in his car and returned in a taxi in the evening. The police investigators found four cartridges fired from a 30-bore pistol at the crime scene.

“We are focusing on two aspects of the case,” said Baldia SP Ejaz Hashmi. The deceased child specialist was Shia and his murder might be linked with sectarianism, added the officer.

Besides, he had also received a threat from gangsters over non-payment of protection money around six months ago.

The police were investigating whether the murder was related to extortion, said SP Hashmi.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2015