KARACHI, March 13: At least three policemen, including an officer who is said to have played an active role during the Karachi operation of the 1990s, were shot dead within an hour on Tuesday night in separate acts of firing in the city.

While the police chief said that the incidents were not related to one another, the chief minister taking immediate notice of the killings sought a report from the police authorities on this matter.

Officials said ASI Raja Moin, 47, was gunned down outside his house in Ali Town, off the Superhighway, within the remit of the Sachal police station. He was targeted by two men riding a motorbike. He was rushed to a nearby private hospital where he died during treatment, the officials said.

The body was later shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

The ASI had relocated to Ali Town from Al Noor Society in Gulberg, said Sachal SHO Azhar Iqbal.

Posted at the Shah Latif police station, the victim had just received a transfer order to the Gadap City police station, Mr Iqbal said.

The victim was said to have worked under Inspector Ahmed Hasan during the Karachi operation, the officer said, adding that he had also played an active role in the Lyari Task Force, then headed by SP Chaudhry Aslam, in 2004.

The ASI had also been working with Inspector Hasan in the Anti-Street Crime Unit of Gadap Town for the past four years.

The SHO said that the victim had five children from two wives.

Police said that a 57-year-old police constable, Ayub aka Chacha, was shot dead near People's Chowrangi in North Nazimabad.

He was targeted on his way home from the Taimuria police station, the police said, adding that he suffered a gunshot wound to his head and died on the spot.

The body was later shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

"The victim was Roznamcha Moharrir of the Taimuria police station," said a police official.

The slain constable, a father of two, was a resident of Faqeer Goth, Shafiq Mor.

In yet another incident of firing, a policeman was gunned down near the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases in F.B Area within the remit of the Yousaf Plaza police station.

Area DSP Saleem Siddiqui said that the police constables were shot at when they reportedly approached a couple of thieves who were trying to take away motorbikes from the parking lot of the institute.

PC Ghulam Abbas 55, and Fazalur Rehman, 50, were wounded in the firing, said the DSP. They were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Ghulam Abbas died while Fazal was being operated upon, he said. Fazal had suffered a bullet wound to his neck and was said to be in a serious condition, he added.

Additional IG Akthar Gorchani said: "The three incidents are not related to one another." He added that the aspect of targeted killing was being investigated.