KARACHI, Jan 5: Tension gripped parts of New Karachi after the killing of two Sunni Tehreek activists on Saturday hardly an hour before a Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist was shot dead and his brother was wounded near the Nagan traffic intersection in a targeted attack, police said.

Only a day ago, a Sunni Tehreek member in charge of the Baldia sector was killed and his associate was wounded in a targeted attack.

In New Karachi, the police said, 31-year-old Abdul Razzaq aka Mamu and 29-year-old Mohammad Ali aka Pilot were targeted near a roadside paan shop by armed men riding a motorbike.

Following the shooting, the attackers sped away.

“Razzaq sustained a single bullet wound in the head, while Ali was hit by three bullets in the chest, neck and hand,” said Bilal Colony SHO Inspector Mohammad Mohsin.

The police investigators later collected nine spent bullet casings at the crime scene in Sector 5-J and shifted the bodies to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.After the incident, random gunfire in the locality forced traders to pull down shutters while transport gradually disappeared from roads. Normality had not returned to some parts of New Karachi till sunset.

A spokesman for the Sunni Tehreek condemned the killing of the two active members of the party’s New Karachi sector.

“Within a month we have lost nearly a dozen workers in targeted attacks. The authorities have been informed time and again about a serious threat to our workers in every district of the city but they have yet to pay heed,” he said.

“We believe the political activists’ killings are part of an organised campaign to disturb Karachi peace just before the crucial elections in Pakistan’s history.”

Within an hour, armed men targeted two brothers associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement at their puncture shop near the Nagan traffic intersection, police said.

An official at the Sir Syed Town police station said two men riding a motorbike pulled up at the shop, one of them walked into it, pulled out a pistol and fired multiple shots at the two brothers before fleeing with his waiting accomplice.

“As a result of the firing, 29-year-old Shahzad and his elder brother Dilshad, 35, sustained gunshot wounds,” said Sir Syed Town SHO Inspector Balaghat Hussain.

“They were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Shahzad died and Dilshad is said to be in a critical condition.”

He said the victims were New Karachi residents and had been running the puncture in the area for the past many years.