Surjani police on Wednesday registered a murder case against six suspects, including a member of a law enforcement agency, for allegedly killing a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) worker and causing injuries to three others in Karachi a day earlier.

A gun attack on JI's Taiser Town office early on Tuesday morning had left one of its worker dead and three others injured, according to police and party sources.

They said armed men riding motorcycles pulled up outside the party office in Sector 36-C where workers were busy arranging relief goods for distribution among the area's residents in the backdrop of the ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and opened fire on some workers.

A senior officer said that a First Information Report (369/2020) was registered against three known and as many unidentified persons under Sections of 302, 324, 504, 147, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of Mohammed Hanif, the brother of the deceased.

The officer revealed that one of the six people booked is an LEA personnel. The three named suspects have not been arrested so far.

Officials said that the JI worker's killing could be the result of a clash between the two sides that took place on Monday evening. On that day, they said, JI workers and activists of another group were busy distributing ration among people separately in the same area. The activity took an ugly turn when a mob-like situation emerged and the two sides blamed each other for the mismanagement.

“The argument turned into a scuffle between the workers of the two sides. They pelted stones and used sticks and bricks to attack each other. The situation turned normal after area residents intervened and police also rushed to the site and dispersed the activists,” said an official of the Surjani Town police station.

During the clash between the two groups, who were said to belong to the same neighbourhood, a person from the firing suspects' side was injured.

Subsequently, on Tuesday morning, some armed men riding motorcycles pulled up outside the JI office. Two of them got off the two-wheeler and fired shots at a group of workers standing outside the office and sped away along with their aides.

“As a result, 35-year-old Javed Ahmed died on the spot while three others — the elder brother of the deceased, 22-year-old Azeem and 18-year-old Adnan — sustained bullet wounds,” said the official.

Additional Police Surgeon Dr Saleem Shaikh of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said that the deceased suffered two bullet wounds in his chest. He added that the three injured men were out of danger as they received bullet injuries in their hands and legs.

An officer said the deceased JI worker originally hailed from Thatta and was a driver by profession.

Meanwhile, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rahman in a statement condemned the attack on the party's workers, terming it a failure of law enforcement agencies and the security administration.

“It is so unfortunate that those volunteers who are working to help out people in these times of crisis are being targeted for political reasons and hatred. We demand from the security authorities that the killers, and whoever is behind them, be arrested and penalised,” he said.

The police officer said the suspects were stated to be supporters of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).