ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Taxi driver killers claimed another victim when the body found in the suburbs of the capital city overnight was identified by police on Sunday as that of a taxi driver.

Postmortem showed unidentified attackers had shot 19-year- old Babar Khan through his neck from close range and left him to die in a pool of blood in a green area in Dhoke Allahditta.

Golra police station is investigating the murder, the second of a taxi driver in its jurisdiction in one month.

At least seven taxi drivers have been murdered in Islamabad Capital Territory since February. Killers drove away the taxis of four of them but the motive in the case of three other victims could be different.

Young Babar Khan, the latest victim, was a resident of New Katarian locality of Rawalpindi. His father Sher Khan, a driver in the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, told police that the family had no enemies. He said he had arranged a taxi for his son after he quit school in 9th class.

Babar was shot dead almost in the same fashion in which Shaukat Ali Khan, 28, a resident of Taxila, was killed in Dhoke Mughlan Serai Kharbooza in Golra police station limits on November 18.

Earlier two aged taxi drivers were murdered in the month of August in Carriage Factory area and in Shahzad Town, both on the outskirts of Islamabad. Of them, Mir Afzal, 58, was gored in his abdomen and Mian Omer, 55, was shot and killed from a close range.

Three other taxi drivers were killed in city limits in March and June.

About three years back police had busted a gang of criminals engaged in killing taxi drivers in Tarnol. One of the criminals was quoted telling his interrogators that they took “sadistic pleasure” in killing taxi drivers.—Staff Reporter