A man was shot dead and two others — including an infant — were wounded in Karachi's Sachal area when their car came under attack by armed assailants on Thursday afternoon.

Sachal SHO Shakir Ali told Dawn that armed pillion riders ambushed the trio when their vehicle reached the main road opposite Memon Medical Institute near Safoora Chowrangi. The attackers shot at the victims indiscriminately before fleeing the crime scene.

All three sustained wounds but while two survived the attack, one did not. The deceased was 70 and a resident of New Rizvia Society. The other two passengers were his 28-year-old nephew and two-and-a-half-year-old grandson.

The deceased's body was shifted to Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre for legal formalities.

Additional police surgeon Dr Aijaz Ali Khowaja said the slain man received three bullet wounds on different parts of his body.

After SHO Shakir ruled out the incident being a robbery gone awry, Malir SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio mooted the possibility of it being a sectarian crime.

“It appears to be a targeted killing linked with sectarianism,” said SSP Chandio.

Meanwhile, senior official of Sindh Police's Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Raja Umar Khattab remarked that if the killing is proven to be a sectarian crime, then the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) could be behind it.

Khattab said that 'elimination' of LJ leaders Naeem Bukhari and Asif Choto had kept sectarian killings in Karachi in check for a considerable time.

The CTD official said they were monitoring prison records to see if any suspected sectarian militants have been released who may have then established a new cell.

Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen (MWM) spokesperson Allama Sadiq Jafferi said the incident puts a question mark over the performance of law enforcers at a time when Karachi is on high alert due to Sunday's Pakistan Super League final.

He demanded immediate arrest of the killers.

IGP Sindh A.D. Khowaja also took notice of the incident and sought a detailed inquiry report from the Malir SSP.