KARACHI, June 20 A worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was shot dead and two others were wounded in the jurisdiction of the Nabi Bux police station early on Saturday, police said.

They said that the incident occurred in the Ramaswami area and initial findings suggested that two gunmen on a 70cc motorcycle chased the 30-year-old MQM worker, Atiquddin, when he headed home with a friend, Shahzad, after attending a party meeting.

“As the two stopped at a paan (betel leaf) shop on Shamli Road, the armed motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire with a 9mm pistol,” said a senior police official. “Atiq, Shahzad and the shop owner sustained bullet wounds and they were rushed to the civil hospital.”

However, Atiq died a few minutes after reaching the emergency unit of the health facility. Doctors at the medico-legal section told Dawn that Atiq suffered multiple bullet wounds in the forehead and the abdomen.

“It seems that the shooter was very close to the deceased since the wounds were deep,” said a doctor who conducted the post-mortem examination.

Shahzad was also a worker of the MQM, police said.

A father of two children, the deceased, who was a resident of Millat Nagar near Purana Barma Hotel of Ramaswami, was a member of MQM's Burnes Road sector and also worked in the city government's City Warden department, police said, adding that he had been associated with the party for the last few years.

The deceased MQM worker was laid to rest after Asr prayers at the Mewa Shah graveyard.

A case against the killing could not be lodged and officials at the Nabi Bux police said that they were waiting for the deceased's family to come up with a complaint.

Soon after the killing, tension and panic gripped the entire area after youths forced traders to close their businesses.