KARACHI: Five people, including a teenager, were found shot dead in two different parts of district west within the span of a few hours on Monday, officials said.

They added that four victims found in the Mochko area appeared to be Baloch, while the one found in Manghopir could be Sindhi or Seraiki.

It appeared that they had been kidnapped somewhere and brought to a deserted place, several kilometres from the mud-road leading to Balochistan, where they were gunned down, according to City SSP Sheraz Nazeer.

The trussed-up bodies lying in the bushes near Arib Goth in the area adjoining Balochistan province were spotted by some local people who subsequently informed the police about their presence.

The police said more than a dozen spent bullet casings were found at the crime scene, indicating that they were shot dead there with a 9mm pistol.There were between four and five gunshot wounds on the body of each victim, the officials said.

One of the victims aged around 14 years, two others were between 25 and 30 years while one was about 35-40 years.

All of them were clean-shaven and appeared to be Baloch, the police said.

SSP Nazeer said that no report of missing persons had been filed at any police station of the City division. However, in reply to a question, he said that some bodies of missing persons, including militants, had been found in the Mochko area in the recent past.

The bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for a post-mortem examination. According to medico-legal official Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi, all the deceased sustained multiple bullet wounds while one body also bore torture marks.

The bodies were brought to the hospital at around 11:15am, the officer said.

The MLO, who conducted the autopsies, added that it seemed they had been killed around eight hours before their bodies were brought to hospital.

Following the post-mortem examination, the bodies were shifted to the Edhi morgue for identification.

Investigation officer of the Mochko area Sub-inspector Ghulam Nabi told Dawn that one of the victims sustained around one dozen bullet wounds on different parts of his body. Another man received four bullet wounds in the head, he added.

He added that the boy wore a blue shirt while all the three men wore shalwar kameez.

Mochko abutting on Balochistan is one of those Karachi localities where ‘missing’ persons and Lyari gang warfare victims have been found shot dead.

Meanwhile, another young man was found shot dead on Monday in the Manghopir area, police said.

They added that the man with a bullet wou­nd in the head was found in Jam Chakro Goth.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2014