A 'captain' of the popular ride-hailing service Careem was found murdered on Thursday in Islamabad's Sector G-13.

Unidentified men attacked Junaid Mustafa, the 26-year-old driver, in the early hours of Thursday and fled taking his car and mobile phones with them, according to police reports.

A First Information Report (FIR) of the case was registered by the victim's brother at the Golra police station in Islamabad.

Mustafa had reportedly ended a ride before he was attacked on Street 79 of G-13. He was shot with a 30-bore pistol.

The FIR stated that one of the victim's stolen phones had been tracked to a location on the motorway.

In a post on Twitter, Careem Pakistan confirmed that the driver had been unaccompanied at the time of the incident.

Soon after news of the incident surfaced, dozens of captains were reported by The Express Tribune to be participating in a strike against the company.

The protesters were reported by The Express Tribune to be asking for greater powers to decide which ride requests they should entertain keeping in mind captains' security.

At the time this story was filed, the Careem app was showing rides available in various locations in the city, suggesting that the service was running largely interrupted.