RAWALPINDI, Jan 25: Two persons were killed and another critically injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in a shop in Dhoke Khaba here on Tuesday afternoon.

Ijaz Hussain along with his friends Zulfiqar Mughal and Safdar Hussain Billu was sitting in his gift shop when a car stopped outside. Three persons sitting in the car opened indiscriminate fire on them and escaped. As a result, Ijaz and Zulfiqar died on the spot while Safdar was critically injured and taken to Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

The incident plunged the locality into a state of shock as in a recent violence in the same area one person was shot dead and another injured. In retaliation, the relatives of the deceased had burnt down the house and two shops belonging to the accused.

The critically injured Safdar in his short statement before falling unconscious said three people sitting in the car opened fire on them killing Ijaz and Zulfiqar on the spot and injuring him.

Mohammad Khalid Mughal, the father of Zulfiqar, told Dawn that Ijaz had telephoned him on Tuesday morning asking him to come to his shop as he wanted to discuss some issue with him. He said Ijaz was a gentle man and a family friend but he did not know why he had called his son to his shop.

Police said Ijaz was hit by 11 bullets and Zulfiqar suffered six bullet wounds. The injured received 14 bullets and was operated upon in the hospital.

SI Ameer Gondal said preliminary police investigation suggested that Ijaz's gift shop had been closed for the last 18 months. He said it seemed that Ijaz had a monetary dispute with someone which resulted in the tragedy. However, he said it was too early to say if the shooting was the result of a monetary dispute.

According to one of the relatives of the injured, the attackers had a minor road accident while fleeing towards the airport road. A joint police picket has been set up at the Airport Road and every vehicle passing through the picket is randomly checked and also captured in CCTV cameras.

Azad Khan, one of the colleagues of Safdar Hussain, said he had a meeting with him early in the morning but he had not discussed any dispute. The bodies were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.