KARACHI, Nov 4: A young man was gunned down in front of the residence of a retired judge of the Sindh High Court in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Friday.

Police said the victim was a family friend of retired justice Syed Zawwar Husain Jafari and had come to pick him up for Friday prayers when he was shot dead.

Victim Zainulabideen, 35, was standing outside the house of the retired judge in Block 5, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, when suspects travelling in a 1,000cc car drove close to him and opened fire on him.

The Gulshan-i-Iqbal SHO said the victim suffered six bullet wounds and died on the spot.

Hearing the gunshots, a private guard of Justice Jafari came out of the house and fired into the air.

Hearing the gunshots, policemen posted at the nearby Imambargah Madinatul Ilm rushed towards the place of the incident and fired at the suspects who were fleeing in the car.An auto-rickshaw negotiating a turn blocked the way of the speeding car, causing it to go out of the driver’s control and crash into a wall of a house.

Following the accident, the suspects ran out of the car. Two of them escaped but two other suspects were caught by the police. Police said there were seven suspects — four in the car and three on motorcycles.

It is believed that the two suspects escaped with the help of their accomplices on motorcycles, said a senior police officer said. Later the two suspects were handed over to the area police, who had arrived at the scene.

A pistol, what the SHO described “an AK-47 like rifle but small in size” and a waist bag containing a bottle of spirit, bullets and a ‘burqa’ were seized from the two suspects.

The car bearing a fake registration number was also seized by the police.

Police found between 25 and 30 casings of spent bullets at the crime-scene.

According to initial information gathered by the police, the two suspects were identified as Jamil and Munir, hailing from Multan.

However, senior police officials, including the SSP-East, did not disclose the background or affiliation of the two suspects, saying that they were being interrogated.

SSP-East Javed Odho said retired justice Jafari was inside his home at the time of the shooting, so it was not an attack on him.

About the motive of the killing, the police officer also said it was too early to comment on it.

However, SP Raja Umar Khattab told Dawn that apparently the killing had a sectarian motive, though usually elements of proscribed outfits did not use cars in such attacks.

Ironically, victim Zainulabideen had been deprived of his wallet, a watch and car keys by suspects in Block 2, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, on Thursday, the SSP-East said.

The deceased was the eldest of the three brothers. A former bank employee, the unmarried victim was at present doing some business. He was said to be a close friend of the former justice’s son.

His funeral prayers were offered at Imambargah Shuhuda-i-Karbala at Ancholi and he was buried at the Wadi-i-Husain graveyard.

Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan announced a prize of Rs50,000 and an appreciation certificate for the police party that arrested the two of the attackers.