KARACHI, Mar 10: One person was killed and four others wounded when a group of youths tried to force traders to close their shops in certain localities of Lyari during the day of protest on Wednesday as announced by the PPP. The call for the protest was given against the killing of the PPP MPA, Abdullah Murad, in Malir a few days back.

Shops in parts of Malir and Gadap remained closed and protesters lit bonfire and blocked roads. Police and Rangers were deployed in the troubled areas. During an exchange of fire between police and armed men, one person was killed, the police said and identified the victim as Khan Mohammad, 32. Police claimed that the miscreants were trying to force shopkeepers to pull down shutters.

However, driver of an Edhi ambulance (EA-1822) narrated that six armed men had tried to hijack the vehicle. Upon spotting an advancing police mobile van, he added, the armed men started shooting at the police who returned the fire. He said that windscreen of the ambulance was shattered in firing.

The armed men tried to flee but the police caught hold of two of them, a police official said. During the encounter, Khan Mohammad, who had come from abroad recently, lost his life, he added.

In Lyari, an eight-year-old boy, Aurangzeb, suffered a bullet wound in shooting by some unknown persons on Mewashah Road, near Gharib Shah Mazar, area police said.

A man, Adnan Siddiqui, sustained a bullet wound in a similar incident on Alvi Street whereas two persons, Abdul Jabbar and Saeed Khan had been beaten up with clubs in another locality of Chakiwara, they added.

Tension prevailed in almost entire Lyari Town as the PPP observed the day of protest. Groups of angry youths took to the street and forced shopkeepers to shut down their shops. They also blocked roads to disrupt vehicular traffic in different areas of the town.

Clashes between the protesters and shopkeepers and the protesters took place in Lea Market area where some traders resisted the picketers' call to observe the shutter down, witnesses said.

Schoolchildren taking the ongoing examination had to face a lot of trouble due to non-availability of transport means. Baghdadi, Shah Beg Lane, Khadda, Daryabad, Nawabad, Haat Chowk, parts of Kalakot, Chawkiwara, Tannery Road and Lea Market were the among the localities worst-affected by the tension and violence.

Local PPP leaders claimed that police raided the houses of MPA Rafiq Engineer and many PPP workers late Tuesday and detained several party workers. Reports of disturbances also came in from Gadap, Ibrahim Hyderi, Al-Falah, Rifah-i-Aam Society, Ghazi Town, etc., where youths in groups resorted to attack moving vehicles with stones. They lit bonfire prompting police to use force.