HYDERABAD, Nov 29: Shopkeepers pulled down shutters on their shops in parts of the city on Saturday evening following reports of violence and casualties in Sohrab Goth and Banaras areas of Karachi.

People ran homewards in panic in Faqir Ka Pir, Cloth Market, Tower Market, Saddar Bazaar, Resham Gali, Hyder Chowk and Khokhar Mohallah as shopkeepers closed shops and lifted goods lying outside the shops.

“We didn’t close our shops but just wrapped up the goods which remain lying in front of shops,” said a wholesale dealer of goods at Tower Market.

He said that most of the shopkeepers did not pull down shutters but remained alert to any news of situation becoming untoward.

Similar situation was witnessed in Cloth Market – a popular spot for cloth and used clothes run by Urdu and Pushto speaking people – as buyers disappeared after rumours hit bazaars that trouble had started in Hyderabad too after Karachi. Traders in Cloth Market resumed business after police arrived there.

MQM’s sector and unit committee in-charges and members also remained present in the area. “The shops were closed and people ran in panic at around 6.30 pm but the situation was normalised soon and we resumed business again,” said Aziz Sanbhri, a cloth merchant.

Shopkeepers closed shops in Khokhar Mohallah and Gari Khata area in the wake of reports of violence in Hyderabad. They did not reopen them later.

No untoward incident was reported from any part of the city till the filing of this report.

Man killed: A 30-year-old man was shot dead on the Miran Mohammad Shah road late on Friday night when he was going home after finishing work at a restaurant in the limits of Cantonment police station.

Police said that Arif Khilji was fired at by some men in a car when he came out of the restaurant. He fell on the road with serious wounds. A police mobile van moved him to hospital where he died.

Khilji who was a resident of Chotki Ghitti area worked in the restaurant. Police interrogated his colleagues who informed that Khilji used to talk on cell-phone frequently and in isolation. Police found a cell-phone in his pocket and called his family.