Sectarian & ethnic attacks?: One killed in Gulberg, 3 in New Karachi

Three men shot dead in New Karach­i, unclea­r whethe­r it is part of the sectar­ian violen­ce wave.

KARACHI: A wave of killings continue to plague Karachi, as another man from the Shia sect was targeted in the limits of Gulberg Police Station on Monday.

Taseer Abbas Zaidi was killed in FB Area Block 20 when two men on a motorbike open fired on him.

He was the brother of noha khawan Raza Abbas. The deceased will be buried at Wadai-e-Hussain.

Tension gripped the area immediately after the incident and unidentified men forced shopkeepers to close their stores in Ancholi and the Water Pump areas. Shara-e-Pakistan is also reported to be blocked.

Protestors also blocked the media and targeted media personnel. They were present on the Ancholi side of the Sohrab Goth bridge and members of Pashtun community were on the other side.

Protestors clashed with the security forces deployed in the area. Police fired shots into the air and arrested 20 men.

Booths under the bridge and a bus were also set on fire during the protests.

The city has been under the grip of sectarian and political violence during the last couple of weeks, with the death toll standing at above 20 in the month of January.

In another act of targeted killing, 59-year-old Jaffar Mohsin Rizvi, alias doctor, the son of Syed Baqar Rizvi, was gunned down in Gulberg on Saturday.

Three men killed in New Karachi attack

Three men were killed on Monday when unidentified men opened fired at their vehicle in New Karachi.

The men were fired upon outside Pir Bazaar near Powerhouse roundabout in North Karachi.

SHO Ilyas Shah of Bilal Colony police station, who immediately reached the spot, said that three men were sent to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in an injured condition.

However, they succumbed to their injuries while being moved to the hospital. The dead were identified as Adnan, a resident of New Karachi, Nizamuddin alias Adil, a resident of Orangi town and Irfan alias Shahrukh.

SP Chaudhry Asad though told The Express Tribune that the men belonged to the MQM. However, he refused to confirm whether this was an ethnic attack. "Investigations are still underway," he said.

Police has set up a cordon at the scene of the crime. Shops in the area have been closed following the incident. Reports of tensions from New Karachi, North Karachi, Nazimabad, FB area and Nazimabad have been received.