KARACHI: A high-level police team has been formed to probe the suspected targeted killing of inspector Javed Abro, who was gunned down by armed pillion riders in Karachi’s Steel Town a day earlier, officials said on Monday.

The 55-year-old inspector was shot dead, while his wife was wounded in the Sunday evening attack. Officials said the two were having tea in the front lawn of their house when two assailants arrived on a motorbike and opened fire.

Karachi Additional Inspector General (AIG) Azad Khan told Dawn that an investigation team headed by the Malir senior superintendent of police (SSP) has been constituted. He said the Malir and Korangi investigation superintendents of police (SP) and the Malir divisional SP were among the team members.

Regarding possible motives for the killing of the former station house officer (SHO), the city police chief said they were investigating with an “open mind and all [possible] angles”.

Hammad, a son of Abro, said police personnel had been deployed for the former SHO’s security, but his father had sent them on leave around a week ago. He said his father used to roam around alone and demanded that his father’s killers be traced and arrested.

The former SHO’s brother, Yaseen Abro, told the media that they had no “personal enmity” with anyone.

He said his brother, being a police officer, was fighting against criminals, recalling that another one of their brothers, police officer Mohammed Khan Abro, had also been martyred in August last year.

Funeral prayers for Abro were held at police headquarters in Karachi’s Garden area on Sunday night. They were attended by Azad, Sindh Inspector General Javed Alam Odho and other senior officers.