KARACHI: Suspected sectarian terrorists gunned down the son of an Imambargah caretaker in the Gulberg area last evening hours after a shopkeeper was killed in Nazimabad on sectarian grounds, police said on Thursday.
Meanwhile a car mechanic targeted a day ago in a suspected sectarian attack died during treatment at hospital, officials said.
All the three victims were Shia Muslims, police said.
Syed Hammad Ali Naqvi was targeted in front of Qasr-i-Abu Talib Imambargah in Karimabad by armed motorcyclists, the DawnNews quoted police saying.
He was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, said a hospital official.
The victim was the son of the caretaker of the Imambargah, Abbas Raza, and the murder appeared to be the outcome of sectarianism, said Gulberg police officer Farooq Sanjrani.
A spokesperson of the Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen said he was targeted inside the Imambargah.
Earlier, two shopkeepers were killed in Nazimabad and Liaquatabad on sectarian grounds, officials said.Syed Sami Abbas Zaidi, 35, was gunned down at his Mashallah General Store in Gol Market, Nazimabad, the police said.
He was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, they added.
It also appeared to be an act of sectarian killing, said police said.
Referring to the murder, the MWM spokesman said that two men were gunned down within six hours but the law-enforcement agencies were conspicuous by their absence.
Ibne Raza Haider who succumbed to his wounds had been attacked on his shop by armed motorcyclists in Liaquatabad. Three other persons, including a boy, had also sustained gunshot wounds in the attack. Ibne Raza died during treatment at the hospital. The real target was Ibne Raza, said police said and blamed Sunni extremist groups.
Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen has been staging protests across Pakistan against government inacation to stop what it terms as genocide of Shia Muslims.
Some 80,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in attacks eversince military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq began patronage of Saudi funded extremist groups.
MWM has also been seeking action against Sipah-e-Sahaba now known as Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), two frontline groups involved in anti-Shia attacks.
Interestingly Malik Ishaq, chief of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was acquitted in three cases by a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court on Thursday on grounds of insufficient evidence.
ATC judge Judge Rana Masood Akhtar acquitted Ishaq in three cases related to terrorism for lack of sufficient evidence to continue case proceedings.
Cases against the LeJ chief had been filed in police stations in Talagang, Attock and Hazro.
Ishaq has spent 15 years in jail for charges of more than a 100 sectarian killings, of mostly Shia Muslims, as well as for inciting violence through hate speech. He has also been jailed for the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009 in Lahore.
Ishaq was listed on the most wanted international terrorist lists by United States in February 2014.
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