KARACHI, March 2: Ten people, including three activists of the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen and one of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, were gunned down in the city on Saturday, police said.

The killings were mostly reported during the first half of the day and the deadliest one was that of three young friends in Orangi Town.

The area police said that the three friends — Ali Hussain, Ali Ejaz and Hashim Hussain — were riding a motorbike in Orangi Town’s Sector 11 when they were intercepted by four armed men on two motorbikes.

“Two of the armed men got off their two-wheelers and fired at the three friends,” said Inspector Sabir Khan, the SHO of the Iqbal Market police station.

“The victims sustained multiple bullet wounds and a bullet also hit a passer-by, later identified as Mohamamd Javed, in the shoulder.”

The wounded were shifted to a nearby hospital, where the three friends died. The condition of the passer-by was said to be stable. The police found 16 spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the scene, the area SHO added.

Tension and fear gripped the locality following the deadly attack, with traders pulling down shutters and traffic becoming thin.

“All the three victims were members of the Shia community and residents of the same area near Toori Bangash Colony,” said Orangi Town SP Ahmed Jamal. “The area where the killings took place is quite a busy commercial neighbourhood. The youths, all in their mid-twenties, had gone there to buy some stuff on one motorbike.”

He said that initial findings suggested that the motive for the killings was sectarian.

A spokesman for the MWM said that the slain youths were affiliated with the party.

“The government has failed to cap violence against a particular community and no credible action is seen on the ground against banned outfits, which are involved in these killings and openly claiming the responsibility of acts of terrorism,” said the MWM spokesman.

ASWJ activist killed

Within an hour of the killings, a 30-year-old ASWJ activist was targeted at his milk shop in Shah Faisal Colony.

“Two men on a motorbike targeted Mohammad Nadim when he was at his shop in the Green Town area near Asif School Road,” said DSP Shakil Awan. “He was a resident of the same area and an active member of the ASWJ.”

The area DSP said that it appeared that he was targeted for sectarian reasons. He was hit by four bullets fired from a 9mm pistol.”

An ASWJ spokesman termed the targeted killing a planned campaign against his party workers, saying that more than a dozen activists had been killed only this week.

‘Sectarian’ attack

Shortly after sunset, armed men targeted another young man in an apparent sectarian attack in the North Karachi area, police said.

The area police said that gunmen riding a motorbike fired at 28-year-old Ali Daad near the Baba Morr bus stop in North Karachi’s Sector 5-A/1. “He was hit by two bullets in the chest and died on the spot,” said Khawaja Ajmer Nagri SHO Inspector Chaudhary Afzaal.

“The victim was a member of the Shia community and resident of Yaqoob Shah Basti in Manghopir. He had gone to the vegetable market to see some relatives and was returning home when he came under attack.”

Five bodies found

Bodies of five unidentified young men were found in the Mauripur, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Liaquatabad areas on Saturday, police said.

They added that the three bodies, stuffed in gunny bags, were found on two spots in the Mauripur area.

Investigators suspected that the three men were murdered by one group.

“The first body was found on Hawkesbay Road near Musharraf Colony,” said Mauripur SHO Inspector Shafiq Tanoli. “Two more bodies were found in Mowach Goth near Suparco Road.”

The police shifted the bodies to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination. Till late in the night, none of them was identified.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, the body of an unidentified man was found near Bait-ul-Mukarram Masjid on University Road within the remit of the Aziz Bhatti police station.

The body bore severe torture marks and the victim sustained a bullet wound in the head.

In Liaquatabad, a man was found shot dead in the C-1 Area graveyard within the remit of the Supermarket police station.

The victim sustained a bullet wound in the head.