In what appears to be a case of sectarian murders, two men belonging to the Deoband sect were gunned down in Block 16 of the Federal B Area on Friday.
Unidentified assailants opened fire on the two men sitting outside the shop Dilshad Autos located in the Saghir Centre.
They were killed on the spot, and their bodies were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors confirmed their death.
Police said the victims were identified as 50-year-old Rizwan Shamsi and 42-year-old Akbar Ilyas, and were residents of the same area where they were killed.
Quoting witnesses, the police said three men on two motorcycles asked Shamsi about Ilyas. When he told them that the man sitting with him is Ilyas, they gunned both of them down.
Liaquatabad Superintendent of Police Nauman Ahmed Siddiqui said the murders could be a sectarian crime as the victim Akbar Ilyas’ brother Asghar Ilyas is associated with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). However, he maintained that the two victims had no affiliation with the organisation.
“The police recovered multiple shells of 9mm pistols from the crime scene,” he added.
The spokesman for the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat – the new name of the outlawed SSP – told Pakistan Today that the victims were not his organisation’s members.
