KARACHI, April 19: Four men, said to be supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were gunned down after being kidnapped from the Lyari area on Friday, police said.

They said that three of the victims were cousins and meat merchants. The fourth one was a rickshaw driver.

Two meat merchants and the rickshaw driver were shot dead in Shershah area, while the bullet-riddled body of third meat merchant was found in the Pak Colony area.

The slain men were MQM supporters and one of them was a brother of a senior activist of MQM’s Lyari sector.

The killing came on a day when the MQM was observing a day of mourning against the frequent killing of its party workers and supporters in the city.

The police said that the three meat sellers — Naveed Akhtar, Shakil Ahmed, and Abdul Khaliq, — had gone to a slaughterhouse in Meera Naka to buy meat in a rickshaw driven by Nadim Ahmed on Friday morning.

They said that when they were returning home, unidentified armed men kidnapped them.

Later, the armed men brought three of the four men to a narrow lane at Akbar Road near Shershah’s Pankha Hotel, forced them to stand and fired at them targeting their heads.The armed men escaped after shooting. The victims were rushed to the Civil Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Shershah SHO Khan Mohammad Shaikh said that the three victims were identified as Naveed Akhtar, 20, Shakil Ahmed, 30 and Nadeem Ahmed, 25.

Later in the day, the body of the fourth victim, Abdul Khaliq, 40, was found in a rickshaw in the Mewashah graveyard within the remit of the Pak Colony police station.

Describing it an act of terrorism, the MQM strongly condemned the killing.

A statement issued on Wednesday said that slain Shakeel Ahmed was the elder brother of MQM activist Khalil Ahmed.

Another ‘missing’ man from Balochistan found dead

The body of a young man, who had gone missing in Gwadar about four months back, was found on the outskirts of the city on Manghopir Road on Friday morning, police said.

They said that body was shifted to the Civil Hospital, where hospital sources said that he was tortured to death.

Manghopir SHO Aslam Joya said that the victim was identified as Tasveer son of Ibrahim with the help of a slip found from the body, which also inscribed with an address of Gwadar.

The victim had gone missing from Gwadar on Dec 24, 2012, the area SHO said, adding that he was among a list of missing persons from Balochistan.