KARACHI, March 18: As police continued their crackdown on extortionists in different parts of the city, a meat seller was wounded on Sunday morning in a gun attack on a shop whose owner had received an extortion call a couple of days ago.

Protesting against the firing incident in the Gol Market area of Nazimabad No 3, several shopkeepers burnt tyres on Nazimabad Road, blocking traffic for a couple of hours.

They said two armed men riding a motorbike arrived at the beef shop, opened fire and sped away. A worker, Zubair, was wounded in the attack, they said.

SP-Liaquatabad Noman Siddiqui said that a man was reportedly wounded in the firing, but nobody with a gunshot wound reported at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital during the day.

Police said that two days back, the shopkeeper, Naeem Qureshi, had received a call from extortionists who had demanded Rs500,000 from him. Instead of reporting the matter to the anti-extortion cell or the local police station, the shop owner had informed a provincial lawmaker about it and gave him the phone number of the caller, the police said.

Finally, the number was conveyed to the Liaquatabad SP who deputed a DSP on the task. “The cell number was switched off,” the police said.

Meanwhile, some extortionists were arrested and armed seized during raids by a team of the anti-extortion cell in different parts of the city.

The police claimed that Sagar and Zahid were held during a raid in Banghoria Goth near the Yaseenabad graveyard. They said that two TT pistols found in their possession were seized.

However, DSP Wasif Qureshi added, their three accomplices fled during the raid.

The two men were said to be involved in several cases of extortion and other crimes. The police raided their hideout while acting on the information provided by the people who had paid extortion money to them.

One of the suspects hailed from the interior of Sindh and the other from southern Punjab, the police said.

In a surprise raid, police arrested two other men as they arrived at a drug store in Baldia to collect extortion money.

Mochko SHO Nasir Mehmood said that Qudrat Ali and Zulfiqar alias Zulfi had given a slip inscribed with Rs50,000 extortion demand to the owner of Hilal Medical Store in Nawab Colony of Ittehad Town three days ago.

They had come to collect the money when the police arrested them. The police claimed to have seized two TT pistols from them.