KARACHI, May 9: Two young men were found shot dead in the Lyari River near Love Lane Bridge within the remit of the Pak Colony police station on Wednesday, officials said.

The police added that Fawad Sheikh, 31, and his 35-year-old friend, Tariq Kamal, were believed to have been kidnapped on Sunday.

Their families were quoted as saying that they had received a call from kidnappers who told them that both the men were police informants and would be killed for that reason. The victims had sustained gunshot wounds to the head, the police said, adding that their bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination.

Father of an infant, Fawad Sheikh was associated with leather business and lived in Gizri.

Tariq Kamal, a crime reporter working for a local daily, was a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal. Their missing reports were lodged at the Gizri police station, officials said.

Pak Colony SHO Saleem Marwat said the kidnappers apparently killed them on the suspicion of being police informant, as they had also called their families before the murder and told them about the victims’ links to the police.

Speaking to Dawn, editor of daily Sindh Task Rizwan Khanzada said his staff had informed him about the kidnapping of Tariq Kamal on May 5.

He quoted Kamal’s mother as saying that she received a phone call from the kidnappers who told her that they did not want ransom. “They told her that they were going to kill him as he is a police informant,” he said.

According to him, the kidnapper used Kamal’s cellphone to call her mother. When the call was traced, it was found that it was made from somewhere near Hub Chowki or Vinder, he added.

The police said it was not yet clear if the victims had been kidnapped from Vinder or Karachi.

The officials quoted Fawad Shaikh’s nephew, Mohammad Ali, as saying that his uncle left home to meet Mr Kamal on Sunday but went missing. The following day, someone called the victim’s wife telling her that they would kill him because he was working for police.

A case (FIR 115/2012) was lodged at the Pak Colony police station against unidentified persons on a complaint of a victim’s brother, Saleem.

Body found

Earlier on Wednesday morning, the body of a young man, associated with prize bond business, was found in the Moosa Lane area of Lyari, officials said. The officials added that t his was the first killing in the area following the Lyari operation.

Mohammad, 45, son of Younis, left his shop on Tuesday evening telling his associate that he was going to meet someone but did not return, said an official at the Baghdadi police station.

The official said the victim had been killed somewhere else before his body was dumped there. He sustained two bullet wounds to the head. The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination, the police said.

Clash claims two lives

Two people were killed and another was wounded in a clash between two groups of rickshaw drivers in the Bakra Piri area of Malir, police said.

One of the victims, Hafeez, 28, son of Dur Mohammad, was said to be associated with the outlawed People’s Amn Committee, while the identity of the other man killed in the clash could not be ascertained, said an official at the Malir City police station.

The groups became involved in the clash at the Bakra Piri rickshaw stand in Malir 15, said the official, adding that during the brawl, someone in the crowd pulled out a pistol and fired multiple shots before fleeing.

Three people sustained gunshot wounds, while the crowd dispersed due to the firing, the police added.

The police shifted the three victims to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where two of them died during treatment.

Malir City SHO Ismail Lashari said the victim, Hafeez, was a resident of Kalakot.

The wounded man was identified as Rashid, son of Ismail, he said, adding that he was under treatment at the hospital.

The police said the victims were under the influence of drugs when the fight broke out. Following the medico-legal formalities at the JPMC, the body of the victim was shifted to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.