KARACHI, May 16: An employee of the water and sewerage board, in his forties, was gunned down by unknown assailants while he was on his way to work, on Sharea Faisal here on Wednesday.

Identified as Mohammad Aslam, the victim was on his motorcycle when he was intercepted and fired upon by unidentified gunmen. He died on the spot. The body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for post-mortem examination.

“It might be the outcome of a personal enmity, but still it is not clear. It is, for sure, a target killing, but we are trying to ascertain the motive,” a police officer said. Police were unaware of the victim’s affiliation with any political or religious group.

However, the Sunni Tehrik claimed that Aslam was their supporter. “Aslam was the father of one of our diehard workers,” Mohammad Waseem, a member of the Sunni Tehrik said.

The police did not see a link between the killing and Saturday’s political violence between pro-government and opposition workers. During the violence, more than 40 people of the pro-government and opposition parties, including the Sunni Tehrik, PPPP, JI and ANP were killed.

Police and rangers continued heavy patrolling across the city, especially in those localities that have a mixed population, ethnically and linguistically, where chances of ethnic violence were considerable. The police had been put on high alert since Tuesday’s Peshawar blast that killed over 25 people. Though there was no report of violence from any part of the city, security was stepped up to deal with any untoward incident.