KARACHI, Feb 24: In what appeared to be a renewed wave of targeted killings, two activists of the Sunni Tehrik and a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were gunned down in different parts of the city on Thursday.

The killings followed by sporadic incidents of firing forced traders in the Timber Market, Pan Mandi and other parts of old city to pull down shutters, police said.

The two Sunni Tehrik activists were killed in front of the KMC workshop in the Ranchhore Line area on the busy Nishtar Road during the evening rush hours, said an official of the Eidgah police station.

“Twenty-eight-year-old Waseem Qadri and 29-year-old Danish Qadri were on their way on a motorcycle when they were shot at from behind,” said SP Qamar Raza Jaskani. He said inquiries suggested that four armed men riding two motorcycles. He added that investigators collected seven spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.

Waseem Qadri was a worker of the Sunni Tehrik belonging to the Bohra Pir sector of the party and Danish was associated with the party’s Kalakot sector, the SP said.

“The victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the head and chest and died on the spot,” said the official at the Eidgah police station. He added that the bodies were shifted to the nearby civil hospital.

Some activists of the Sunni Tehrik later reached the hospital and raised slogans condemning the killings.

Both the activists were residents of Ranchhore Line, the police official said.

A spokesman for the Sunni Tehrik said that Waseem’s elder brother Nadeem Qadri, who was also a party worker, was also killed three years ago in a similar targeted attack.

Following the incident, tension gripped the old city areas where armed men forced closure of shops and other commercial activities in the Timber Market, Pan Mandi and surrounding areas by firing into the air.

The police said that a passerby, identified as Muslim, was wounded in the firing. He sustained a gunshot wound in the leg.

An FIR of the killings was not registered at the Eidgah police station till the filing of this report.

Earlier, an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was shot dead outside his home in New Karachi, the police said.

“Imran Qureshi, 45, son of Abdul Razzaq Qureshi, was sitting outside his house in Sector 11-D near Noorani Mosque in the early hours of Thursday when two armed suspects riding a motorcycle pulled up and opened fire on him before fleeing,” said an official of the New Karachi police station.

He said that the victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The official quoted hospital sources as saying that the victim had suffered gunshot wounds in the head and chest.

The police said that the deceased was said to be associated with the Muttahida’s New Karachi sector and used to work as a loader.

Body found A teenager was found dead in mysterious circumstances within the remit of the Mehmoodabad police station on Thursday morning, police officials said.

“The police received the information at 6:30am that the body of a teenaged boy was lying in a street of Allama Iqbal Colony,” said Mehmoodabad SHO Ahsan Zulfiqar.

He said the body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a postmortem examination. SHO Zulfiqar quoted hospital officials as saying that there was a mark of injury on the victim’s head.

The victim was later identified as 17-year-old Jabbar, son of a rickshaw driver, the SHO said.