KARACHI - At least 21 people, including six companions of Maulana Orangzaib Farooqi, leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan’s new name) were gunned down in sectarian violence.The ASWJ announced strike for Wednesday against the attack on Maulana Farooqi and frequent incidents of sectarian killings across the city. ASWJ leader Maulana Taj Hanfi asked the business community and transporters to support the strike call against the worst law and order situation.Orangzeb Farooqi narrowly escaped the attack while six people, including his guard, driver and four policemen on guard duty, were killed at Gulshan Chowrangi, Moti Mahal, within the jurisdiction of Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station.Police said the victims were identified as police constables, Arshad Khan, Waheed Khan, Imran Qadir and Saleem, driver Abdur Rehman and private guard Abdul Wasi.Witnesses said the armed attackers on at least eight motorcycles and in a hi-roof van started firing as a pick-up and a police mobile on security duty for Farooqi reached Gulshan Chowrangi. The witnesses added gunmen showered bullets on the police mobile and Maulana’s vehicle. The drivers of both the vehicles tried to escape, but could not manage to run away and the vehicles were hit from two different directions at Moti Mehal. The assailants managed to flee when the police guard still alive resorted to retaliatory firing. Three people died on the spot and three others succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.Following the incident, SSP Dr Asim and SSP Amir Farooqi reached the spot and cleared the road after negotiating with the party leaders. The police said at least two attackers were also injured in the retaliatory firing of the guards and policemen. However, the attackers managed to flee along with their injured men, leaving empty bags of weapons on the spot.The bodies and injured were rushed to Liaquat National Hospital where a large number of ASWJ activists burnt tyres and resorted to aerial firing. ASWJ spokesman Taj Muhammad Hanfi confirmed that the condition of Mualana Farooqi was stable, but his driver and guards were dead.Violence erupted in different areas of the city as the news of attack on Mualana Farooqi spread across the city. A Shia shopkeeper, Zain-ul-Abidin, was killed when miscreants resorted to firing and forced shopkeepers to close the markets in Gohdra area of New Karachi over the attack on Maulana Farooqi.The angry mob staged a protest in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Aisha Manzil, Nazimabad, Qayyumabad and other areas of metropolis, suspending the flow of traffic. They also burnt at least two vehicles.Police and rangers rushed to the disturbed area to control the situation. They also made some arrests. However, many city areas remained very tense and markets and bazaars closed. Traffic flow was seriously hampered in different areas due to protests and violence.In another incident of target killing, two activists of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Haider Ghulam and Abdul Hafiz, were shot dead near Chamcha Hotel in the Orangi Town area.The police said both the activists, belonging to the banned SSP, were on a motorbike when the gunmen shot them dead and managed to flee.In another incident, two men were gunned down and another was wounded near Saddar Parking Plaza in the Brigade police area. The police said unknown gunmen resorted to firing and killed Rozi Khan, Nemat Hayat and injured Atiq seriously. The victims were coming out of a mosque when the gunmen sprayed a volley of bullets on them and fled.On the other hand, an activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Nadeem, 35, was gunned down in the Iqbal Market police jurisdiction by unidentified assailants. The incident seems to be part of sectarian violence as the victim was a Shia.In the same police area, a meat seller, Syed Shahid Mubarak, was shot dead when he was sitting in his shop. Again the motive behind the murder was sectarian violence as the deceased was a Shia. In another incident of target killings, gunmen killed Mazhar Zahir, 26, near Saeed Manzil, Radio Pakistan, within the limits of Preedy police station and managed to escape. Another similar incident occurred in the Kharader police area where gunmen killed a youth at Kamil Gali and fled. Another body of Ghulam Hussain, 35, was found from a garbage yard within the jurisdiction of Nabi Bakhsh police station. The police said unidentified killers kidnapped the victim from somewhere and threw his body there after killing him. Gulshan-e-Iqbal police found a bullet-riddled body from the bushes in Block-6, Gulshan and shifted it to the morgue of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for autopsy. Eidgah police found another bullet-riddled body of a youth and shifted it to the morgue for identification and autopsy. Shahzaib, 20, son of DSP Orangzeb Khan, was shot dead by his friend, Shahrukh Jatoi, in the Defence area within the precincts of Darankshan police over some dispute. Meanwhile, an angry mob set two vehicles on fire and resorted to aerial firing during the funeral procession of the two brothers who were gunned down on Monday in the Nazimabad area.