KARACHI: A young man, said to be a worker of a mainstream religious party, was shot dead in Surjani Town, police said on Monday.

Area SHO Ghulam Husain Pirzada said the victim, Mohammed Khalid, 25, was on his way home on a motorcycle. He was passing through a deserted place on a muddy road in Sector-5 when some unidentified assailant(s) opened fire on him. He suffered a bullet wound in the chest and died on the spot.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The officer said said the suspect(s) did not take away his cell phone and motorcycle. The incident was being investigated with three angles — a matrimonial issue, robbery bid and targeted attack on religious grounds, he added.

The victim had got married recently. He had studied at a seminary and also taught there for some time before joining a factory. He was affiliated with a mainstream religious party, but was not very active.

The police did not name the religious party.

SSP-West Arib Mahar said the exact motive was still not known, adding that police were waiting for the relatives to lodge an FIR and give their opinion to initiate formal proceedings to ascertain possible motive and identity of the killers.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024