KARACHI, Dec 27: An activist of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was gunned down and another wounded in an apparent incident of targeted killing in the New Karachi area on Monday, police said.

They said that the shooting also left two passers-by wounded.

“Two young men were going somewhere on a motorbike in Sector 11-J near Godhra Colony when three men riding a motorcycle intercepted them and fired multiple shots at them,” said DSP Pervez Akhtar, the area’s supervisory police officer (SPO). “One of them, Shoaib, sustained a bullet wound in the chest and died on the spot while his companion, Mustafa, ran to save his life.”

However, the armed men chased him on the motorbike and fired at him in Sector 11-G, the SPO said, adding that Mustafa sustained two bullet wounds in the right leg and shoulder while two passers-by, Zubair and Waqas, also suffered gunshot wounds.

“All the three wounded were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities,” he said.

The police said that the deceased, 21-year-old Shoaib, was a resident of New Karachi’s Sector 11-F and ran an auto spare parts shop in the area. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination.

Tension gripped the locality after the incident and shopkeepers pulled down their shutters. A heavy contingent of police backed by the Rangers reached the tense locality to avert any breakdown of law and order.

The police remained clueless about the motive and the people behind the armed attack.

However, Taj Hanafi of the ASWJ claimed that the victim and his wounded companion were their workers and they were ‘targeted because of their party affiliation’.He said that the victim was the third member of the ASWJ — formerly known as the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan — targeted in a month.

Man, daughter shot deadA man and his minor daughter were shot dead by two unidentified men riding a motorbike near the Karachi airport when he was driving home along with his three daughters.

“Thirty-seven-year-old Shahzad Khalid Farooqi was intercepted by two men on a motorbike who fired multiple shots at his vehicle near the Old Terminal,” said SSP Javed Akbar Riaz of Shah Faisal Town. “He sustained a single bullet wound in the head that proved fatal. Another bullet hit his eight-year-old daughter, Wania, in the chest. She was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where she died.”

The victim was living in Model Colony where he had shifted from Nazimabad a few months ago. He worked in a tile manufacturing unit.

Though no group claimed the victim as their member, an initial police investigation showed that he had been associated with a banned militant outfit.

“He was associated with a banned group known for militancy across the border. A TT pistol was also found in his car, but the licence was not in his (victim’s) name,” said a police official associated with the investigation section of the Airport police station.