KARACHI, April 4: Two students and activists of the Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat were gunned down on Monday in a fresh targeted-killing incident apparently executed on sectarian grounds, investigators and ASWJ sources said.

The police said Abul Hashim and Zubair Ateeq, both in their early 20s, left a religious gathering held in Bandhani Colony, a middle-class neighbourhood along Sir Shah Muhammad Suleman Road, on a motorbike in the early hours of the day.

“When their motorbike, bearing registration number KEC 3427, reached near the Liaquatabad underpass, two men on another motorbike emerged there and intercepted them,” said Sub-Inspector Aslam Khan, the SHO of the Liaqutabad police station. “One of the riders got off the two-wheeler and fired at the two youngsters.”

They died on the spot and the attackers fled the scene in a flash, he said, adding that the bodies were later moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

“Abul Hashim was hit by three bullets each in the head, chest and the face, and his friend sustained wounds in the head and the face. The victims were residents of Surjani Town and had come here to attend a Seerat conference,” added the SHO.

The police said it could take time to trace the attackers and determine the motive behind the double killing, though leaders of the ASWJ said they believed the two were targeted for their association with the party.

“Hashim was a student of graduation in the D. J. Science College and Zubair was a third-year engineering student of the NED University of Engineering Technology,” said Taj Hanafi of the ASWJ. “It’s so disappointing that despite several assurances by the authorities, not a single killer of our workers has been brought to justice.”

Later the Liaquatabad police registered an FIR (40/2011) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unidentified suspects on a complaint of the brother of one of the victims.

Bandit killed

A suspected armed bandit was killed by police in an alleged shootout near Kala Pul, officials said.

They said two bandits on a motorbike were retuning after snatching a cellphone, cash and valuables from a newspaper hawker, Mohammad Sharif, when they were challenged by a police party.

Finding police around, he said, the suspects fired at the police van that triggered a shootout. He said a brief exchange of fire killed one of the suspects while the other escaped.

“The dead bandit was later identified as Arshad Zulfiqar, in his mid-20s,” he added.