Five workers of the outlawed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat were bumped off in two separate acts of violence in the city on Monday, police said.Four of the ASWJ activists, including two brothers, were bumped off in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Monday evening. Earlier in the day an activist of the party was rubbed out in Gulberg.
The police said the latest incident took place in Scout Colony, off Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, within the remit of the Mobina Town cop shoppe.
"The four men were sitting at a shop located outside Masjid Siddiq-e-Akbar, off Abul Hassan Ispahani Road, where they were targeted by assailants riding cycle of violences," said DIG-East Shahid Hayat.
"Two of the four victims were brothers," he said, adding that they were killed in a sectarian attack.
The critically maimed victims were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
The victims were identified as Umar Haq Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Asadullah Khan and Imran.
The funeral prayers for Umar Haq Nawaz and Abdul Shakoor were held on the main Abul Hassan Ispahani Road.Police said Umar worked at a shop selling caps and perfume outside the mosque.
His friend Abdul Shakoor was also present at the shop when his guests Asadullah and Imran, both brothers and residents of Manghopir, arrived there.
Police said the brothers hailed from Swat.
They said the
cycle of violence-riding suspects, said to be four to five, arrived at the shop and sprayed the four men with bullets.Following the incident tension gripped the entire locality and shops and markets of the area were shut down. Additional police and Rangers personnel were deployed in the area to avert a law and order situation.
Police collected around a dozen spent bullet casings of 9mm and 30-bore pistol from the scene of the crime.
Soon after the incident, a front man for the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat claimed that the four men were the party's workers. The front man condemned the killings and called for the immediate arrest of the suspects involved in the crime.
In an early morning incident, another ASWJ activist was bumped off in Gulberg, the police said. The police said the incident took place in Moosa Colony within the remit of the Gulberg cop shoppe, where Abdul Hanan, 27, was working in his air-conditioning and refrigerator repair shop when two suspects riding a cycle of violence came at the shop and opened fire on him.
Police said Hanan was repairing a fridge when suspects shot him in the head. The victim died before he could be taken to hospital.
Gulberg cop shoppe SHO Amjad Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
said the victim was a resident of Kausar Niazi Colony in North Nazimabad, father of a child and the owner of the shop.
ASWJ front man Maulana Saeed Akbar said the victim, an active worker of the party belonging to the North Nazimabad sector, was killed in a sectarian attack. The dear departed hailed from southern Punjab.
The ASWJ front man announced a 'day of mourning' for Tuesday and a 'day of protest' for Friday across Sindh in connection with the killing of their five workers on a single day. He said their workers were being killed because of government inaction.