KARACHI, June 15: Senior prison official Amanullah Khan Niazi and his three associates were gunned down in a daring ambush on a busy downtown road on Thursday afternoon. Five or six attackers sprayed the deputy jail chief’s white Toyota Corolla (AKJ-564) with bullets as his car, followed by an escort vehicle (GS-5030), turned into Aga Khan III Road in the built-up Saddar area from M.A. Jinnah Road.

Head Constable Akhtar Hussain, who drove Mr Niazi’s car, and constables Sabir Sultan and Shafiullah died in the attack which the investigators described as “target killing”.

The ambush left four passers-by and Mr Niazi’s brother, ASI Habibullah Niazi, who was in the escort vehicle, wounded.

The other wounded included ASI Mukhtar Kalim, jail clerk Mohammad Waris, Faqir Mohammad, Mohammad Azeem, Mohamamd Farooq and Qadir Bux.

DSP Investigation Zone I Gul Hameed Samoo told Dawn that the two vehicles came under heavy fire a couple of yards away from a traffic signal on Aga Khan III Road when they slowed down because of a pothole in the road. Police said a machine gun, a triple-two rifle and a 9mm pistol were used in the attack, which caused panic-stricken shopkeepers to close the commercial area.

The assailants fired at jail guards, wearing bullet proof vests, in the neck and head. Through with their assignment, the assailants rode away in their motorcycles. However, police said, the assailants left a motorcycle (KAG-8357) behind. The police found later that the motorcycle had been snatched at gunpoint in Nazimabad on June 11.

They said the deputy superintendent of the Karachi Central Prison, Niazi, was going to the Sindh secretariat to attend a meeting scheduled for 1.30pm. His father, Haji Sarfaraz Niazi, suffered a heart attack when he saw his son’s bullet-riddled body in the Civil Hospital’s mortuary.