KARACHI, March 6: A two-and-half-year-old girl was wounded on Tuesday in a hand-grenade blast in Kalakot as tension gripped parts of Lyari due to the ongoing gang war.

An eight-year-old boy was killed late on Monday night in Chakiwara when a hand-grenade exploded.Police said baby Gulnaz was playing in front of her house in Afshani Gali when unknown culprits hurled a hand-grenade. She was taken to the Civil Hospital where, sources said, the girl, who had received wounds on her right knee, was discharged from the hospital after treatment.

Residents said the gangsters belonging to the Arshad Pappu group and the Rehman Dakait gang had taken positions on the rooftops and in narrow lanes of their respective strongholds, where they resorted to intermittent firing.

They said the area between Gharib Shah Road and Nawa Lane Road was the most affected part of Lyari where the shopkeepers were pulling up their shutters late in the morning and closing their shops before dusk due to the prevailing tension.

The residents said panic had gripped parts of Kalakot and Chakiwara where armed gangsters took positions in the narrow streets and lanes. They said the police were patrolling the main roads in the affected area as they could not get to the hideouts of the criminals.

MQM ACTIVIST: A worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was shot dead in Brigade police area. Police said Sakhawat Hussain, 40, was standing at a fast-food outlet when two motorcyclists opened fire at him from a close range killing him insistantly.