Sources said that Shaban Ali, a 24-year-old student, and Fida Hussain, a cook of Jamia Imamiya, were standing outside the Imambargah's main gate when the killers appeared there on a motorcycle. The pillion rider shot dead both of them and the assailants fled from the scene.

The residents of neighbouring houses and some shopkeepers reached the spot and called the police who shifted the bodies to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. "Our sectarian rivals are responsible for the killing," said Allama Hasan Turabi, chief of Tehrik-e-Jafferiya Pakistan (Sindh).