KARACHI, June 2: Two former activists of the Pakistan People’s Party were killed in a gun attack outside their apartment building in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Saturday, police and party sources said.

They said that armed men on a motorbike pulled up outside Afnan Arcade in Block 15 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar where Ghulam Shabbir and Aftab Magsi were having a chat.

One of the riders, the police said, got off the motorbike, took out a pistol and fired several shots targeting the two friends.

“The two men sustained multiple wounds and died on the spot,” said Shakil Awan, the area’s sub-divisional police officer (SDPO). “The attackers left the scene in a flash after executing the job. Both the victims were in their 30s and residents of the same area.”

The bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. The incident sparked off tension in the area, where traders pulled down their shutters and traffic gradually turned thin.

The police investigators claimed that the victims were once associated with the PPP, but actively not engaged with any political activity these days.

They said both youngsters had been living in the city for the past several years with their families and originally hailed from Shahdadkot.

The motive for the killings remained unclear, but the investigators believed it might be linked with victims’ recent history of political activism.

Teenager killed in clash

In Bhains Colony, a teenage boy was killed and three others sustain bullet wounds when two groups exchanged gunfire over the issue of motorcycle parking, police said.They said the dispute between two neighbours in a Katchi Abadi near the Bhains Colony Mor turned ugly when one of them objected to the parking of the motorcycle by guests of the other side.

The dispute that initiated with arguments finally led to firing from both sides.

“During the firing 13-year-old boy Asif died from wounds and three others sustained minor wounds,” said Inspector Sarfaraz Ali Kakazai, the SHO of the Sukkun police station.

“The victims have been taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment where they are said to be stable. There is an old dispute between the two sides and they have a history of fighting over petty issues.”

He said the police had detained several people from both sides and were further investigating the incident to discover the people behind the tragic episode.

Youth found shot dead

In the early hours of Saturday, a young man was found shot dead in Lyari off Ahmed Shah Bukhari road.

“The victim has been identified as 24-year-old Saqib,” said a police official. “He was meat seller, who had a shop in a Nazimabad area. The victim was a resident of Garden West from where he might have been kidnapped a few hours before his body was found.”