KARACHI, Jan 29: An elderly man was shot dead and his friend injured in an ambush in Defence Housing Authority on Tuesday night.

Police said Syed Jawwad Ali, aged 60, and Syed Zamarud Husain Jafri, aged 55, were returning in a car (AB-8036) after offering Maghrebain prayers in Masjid-o-Imambargah Baqiatullah on Khayaban-i-Sahar in DHA, when two unidentified men, riding on a motorcycle, opened fire on their car.

Both the injured men were rushed to Mideast Hospital where Syed Jawwad Ali died. Syed Zamarud Husain Jafri was admitted to the hospital.

Jawwad Ali’s body was sent to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for post-mortem, where the victim’s relatives had begun to arrive after hearing the news.

A close relation of the victim said Jawad Ali and Zamarud Husain was a few yards from his Sea View residence when they were attacked. Usually, he walked to the Imambargah, but today he went in a car, he added.

Jawwad Ali was a retired official of a foreign life insurance company.

Zamarud Husain is one of the trustees of Imambargah Baqiatullah.

Sources at the JPMC said Jawwad Ali received a bullet in his face which pierced through his head. A senior police official said it was too early to ascertain the motive behind the killing, but sectarianism could not be ruled out.

It was the first targeted killing since the imposition of ban on extremist sectarian groups.

A young man was shot dead by his former brother-in-law in Shah Faisal Colony. Police said Nisar Shah, aged 26, had recently divorced his wife after a marriage lasting three years. Nisar’s former brother-in-law Naseer Ahmed bore a grudge against him after the divorce. On Tuesday, he allegedly opened fire on Nisar on Chawla Bridge in Sadaat Colony, Shah Faisal Colony, and escaped.

Nisar was rushed to the JPMC where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

CARJACKING: Twenty-one vehicles — 10 cars and 11 motorcycles — were either hijacked or stolen in the city on Tuesday, police said.