KARACHI, Aug 10 Two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were gunned down on Monday in Federal B. Area, witnesses and police said.

The Jauharabad police said that the victims were sitting at the Faisan Aalia Park near Taleemi Bagh when at around 1.45pm two attackers opened fire on them.

The area SHO, Maik Murad, said that the victim, Faraz Ahmed Ghauri, a resident of North Nazimabad, and Ali Raza, a resident of Gulberg, were shot dead by two unidentified attackers who had come on two motorcycles.

“The attackers exchanged hot words with the victims before they pumped bullets into their bodies and rode away,” he added.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement condemned the targeted killing of party workers and said that the killings were aimed at disturbing the peace of the city.

The bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for autopsies. Sources at the hospital's medico-legal section told Dawn that both the victims received four bullets each from a very close range.

The police said that they secured four spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol and as many spent bullet casings of a 30-bore pistol (TT) from the crime-scene.

The MQM said that victim Ghauri was a former sector member of the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation (APMSO), the party's student wing, while Ali Raza was an APMSO worker of the Karachi University unit.

Tension and panic gripped parts of Federal B. Area where shopkeepers pulled down the shutters and vehicular traffic disappeared from the streets.

The area SHO, however, said that the situation in the locality was under control as the police intensified patrolling.

He said that no case was registered till late as the victims' families were busy with the funerals.

Woman shot dead

A 45-year-old woman, the mother of five, was shot dead at her house in Sultanabad in the remit of the Jackson police.

Noor Zaman, hailing from the NWFP, reported to the police that unidentified culprit or culprits shot dead his wife, Taj Bibi, in the morning.

He said that he left his house at 5am to bring milk and he found his wife shot dead when he returned home.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

The hospital's medico-legal department said that the victim woman was hit by a bullet in her back.

The police said that the incident seemed to be motivated by a personal feud.

The police said that the victim's husband ran a grocery shop near their house.

They said that a case (FIR 561/2009) was registered against unknown culprits under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim's father, Sher Bahadur.