KARACHI, Oct 28: A former press secretary of the Shia Ulema Council and a Nikah registrar, Kausar Hussain Zaidi was shot dead near Pakistan Chowk on Friday evening, police said.

They added that the 50-year-old victim along with his wife Ishrat Zaidi, 36, was going through the Pakistan Chowk area on a motorcycle when he was targeted by attackers riding a motorbike.

“The couple was rushed to the civil hospital, where Mr Zaidi was pronounced dead on arrival,” said an official at the Arambagh police station.

He added that Mr Zaidi sustained two bullet wounds in the neck and the head, which proved fatal. His wife was provided treatment for the injuries she suffered as she fell off the motorbike, the official added.

SSP South Naeem Ahmed Shaikh said that the couple was attacked near the Arambagh traffic post.

The victim was said to be an active member of the Shia community, the SSP said, adding that the killing appeared to have a sectarian motive.

However, he said, Mr Zaidi was a witness in the Tahir Plaza case. As a witness, he recently failed to identify two suspects booked for having a role in the arson attack in which a lawyer was burnt alive along with his four clients when the building was set on fire on April 9, 2008.

The officer quoted the victim's wife as saying that she could not see the attackers though she heard the shots fired from a very close range.

“So far we don't have an eyewitness account about the attackers and their mode of transport,” the SSP said, adding that it was being assumed that they were also on a motorcycle.

ASP Ali Asif quoted hospital sources as saying that a 30-bore pistol was used by the assailants.

The victim was a resident of Lines Area.

His family and friends reached the hospital following the incident.

“Kausar Zaidi had earlier survived a similar gun attack near Pakistan Chowk on Aug 13,” said a spokesman for the Shia Ulema Council, Atif Rizvi.

In that attack, Advocate Hasan Mehdi who was going along with Mr Zaidi on a motorbike was wounded.

Karachi Bar Association President Mohammad Aqil condemned the killing and expressed his condolence with the bereaved family.

He said the victim was not a Karachi Bar member but a Nikah registrar who used to sit at the City Courts.

Only over a week back, Akhtar Raza was killed outside his house in Qaser-i-Raza in Lyari in what was also described by police as a sectarian attack.