KARACHI, Oct 17: A 45-year-old man was shot dead by armed motorcyclists outside his house in Lyari while he was heading to work on Monday morning, police said.

The officials added that Akhtar Raza, son of Mehram Ali Sherazi, was killed at the same place where his brother, Anwer Raza, a bank manager, had been killed nine months back.

Resident of Qasr-i-Raza, the victim was an employee of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, a trustee of an Imambargah and an activist of the Pakistan People’s Party, the police said.

Akhtar Raza was taking his motorcycle out of the house when unidentified armed men riding a motorbike arrived there and opened fire on him before speeding away, said an official at the Baghdadi police station.

The victim suffered multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot, the official said, adding that the body was shifted to the civil hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Later in the evening, funeral prayers of the deceased were offered at the Bara Imambargah Kharadar.

“The circumstances show that it was apparently a sectarian killing,” said SSP South Naeem Ahmed Shaikh.

A few months back, the victim’s brother, also an activist of a Shia organisation, was killed in the same area, the SSP added. Quoting eyewitness accounts, the police said that the victim was attacked by three assailants riding a motorcycle.

The police investigators collected 11 spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol and four spent bullet casings of a TT pistol from the crime-scene.

The SSP said the victim suffered multiple bullets. The accurate number would be confirmed after the release of his post-mortem examination report, he said.

A Jaffaria Alliance spokesman said that the victim was the trustee of a mosque and an Imambargah, situated in Lyari. The victim’s brother, who had been shot dead earlier this year, was the Lyari town coordinator of the Jaffaria Alliance, the spokesman added.

Karachi Division PPP deputy information secretary Sohail Abdi said that Akhtar Raza was party’s coordination secretary of PS-108.