KARACHI, April 12: Four people were shot dead — including a prayer leader on ‘sectarian grounds’ and a local ANP leader in a targeted attack —in the city on Friday.

The prayer leader was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in what the police described as a sectarian killing in Nazimabad on Friday.

The police said that in Nazimabad No.3 Maulana Ghazanfar Ali, 70, was heading for Masjid Noor-i-Eman when two gunmen riding a motorbike targeted him and fled from the scene, District Central SSP Amir Farooqui said.

“The elderly man was shot six bullets — two bullets hit him in the head causing his sudden death,” the SSP told Dawn.

“The killing is surly carried out on sectarian grounds,” SSP Farooqui concluded.

Several spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol were collected from the scene of the crime, he added.

The victim was a resident of Nazimabad, the police said.

The police took the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Later the body was taken to the Old Rizvia Imambargah.

A spokesman for the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen condemned the killing saying that it was a part of ongoing sectarian strife going on in the city.

He said that the slain cleric was a prayer leader in Masjid-o-Imambargah Safina-i-Ahlebait in Toori Bangash Colony in Orangi Town.

The victim’s funeral was held in Rizvia Society in the evening, which was attended by a large number of people.

ANP man shot dead

A local leader of the Awami National Party was gunned down by unidentified men in Orangi Town on Friday, the police said.

They added that in Qasba MPR Colony unidentified gunmen came on a bike and opened fire on ANP ward president Bismillah Jan, 45, at the Jamshed Pump near the Quetta Awaran hotel.

The victim was taken to the JPMC where he was pronounced dead on arrival, the police added.

A handout issued by the ANP said that Bismillah Jan was the MPR Colony ward president of their party. The victim was a cloths trader, the police added.

College student killed

A teenage college student was killed by an unidentified gunman in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in the early hours of Friday, the police said.

They added that the incident took place in a house located near the Central Pool of Vehicles where the unidentified gunman shot dead 19-year-old Raheel Khan and fled.

DSP of the Aziz Bhatti police station Nasir Lodhi said that when the police reached the house it looked like a robbery scene.

However, after inquiries it transpired that a tenant named Mohsin — a medical student at a private medical college — was living in a single room with a few clothes and a laptop on the top floor of the house, the DSP added.

The victim and his family lived on the ground floor, he said.

The tenant, Mohsin, told the police that he heard a gunshot from Raheel’s room on the ground floor and saw someone fleeing the house.

The police did not arrest the tenant, but he was being questioned, the DSP added.

The police took the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

Passer-by killed in robbery

A passer-by was killed and another man wounded when bandits fleeing after a robbery opened fire on them in a Bin Qasim locality late on Friday, the police said.

They added that in Peeri Goth in Bin Qasim two armed men came to a shop and tried to rob the shopkeepers and other people at gunpoint. After the hold-up they tried to flee while opening fire which hit two men, the police added. However, the police reached the spot and managed to arrest the two suspected robbers, they said.

A pistol was recovered from their possession, the police said.

One of the victims who died in the firing was identified as Niaz Junejo, an employee of the Sindh secretariat.

Cracker attack

Two vehicles were partially damaged when unidentified men hurled an explosive device at a filling station in Orangi Town on Friday night.

District West SSP Asif Ajaz Sheikh said that near the Banaras flyover unidentified bikers hurled a cracker at the pump.

No casualty was reported in the incident, he said.